H.E. Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli

United Kingdom

10 FOLLOW-UP TO THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT

196.   The United Kingdom takes its commitment to supporting developing countries seriously, including by fulfilling our obligation contained in Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement to incentivise transfer of technology to LDCs. The UK particularly recognizes the importance of technology transfer for economic and industrial development of LDCs. In particular, it is the UK's ambition to strengthen research capacity in developing countries and in LDCs in particular at an individual, institutional, and systemic level. Our programmes aim to ensure greater development impact through the strong involvement of skilled national and regional researchers. An increase in the relevance and applicability of research at a national level will only come if partnerships harness essential local knowledge. 197.   The UK would like to extend our gratitude to delegations who attended and contributed to discussions in the Workshop held on 2 and 4 March looking at the implementation of Article 66.2. The sessions were highly useful for sharing experiences on transferring technology to LDCs. We would also like to thank the Secretariat for again facilitating such productive engagement between Members. We look forward to contributing to additional sessions in the future to support LDCs make the most of TRIPS provisions designed to enable technology and knowledge transfer.

56. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

51. The Chair recalled that the Council had conducted the Nineteenth Annual Review under Paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement at its meeting in October 2021. At that meeting delegations from developed country Members had briefly presented the updated reports they had submitted under Article 66.2, and the Council had agreed that it would revert to the item at the present meeting to permit continued consideration of the submitted material. He also recalled that, in July 2020, the LDC Group had circulated a new submission entitled "Proposed New Template for Annual Reporting under Article 66.2 of the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights" in document .
52. In order to give LDCs more time to absorb the information provided by developed country Members in their reports, and to ensure that these reports were available in the official languages of the WTO, the Secretariat had once again organized a "Workshop on the Implementation of the Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement". Due to the sanitary situation, the workshop had been held in virtual format on 2, 3 and 4 March 2022. The Chair indicated that some capital-based delegates who had participated in that Workshop were present at the meeting.
53. The Chair asked the Secretariat to report on this Workshop.
54. A representative of the Secretariat took the floor.
55. The representatives of Sierra Leone; Chad,; Bangladesh; Togo; Nepal; Tanzania; Norway; the European Union; the United Kingdom, South Africa; Japan; Switzerland; the United States; Canada; and Australia took the floor.
56. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/104/Add.1, IP/C/M/104/Rev.1, IP/C/M104