Minutes - TRIPS Council - View details of the intervention/statement

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1. Meeting date

2. Chairperson

H.E. Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli and Ambassador Dr. Lansana Gberie

3. Intervention by

South Africa

4. Agenda item

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

5. Statement/summary of statement

198.   Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement places a legal obligation on developed country Members to provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories for the purposes of promoting and encouraging technology transfer to LDCs in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base. Fulfilment of the obligation contained in Article 66.2 would contribute to the objectives of the TRIPS Agreement, in particular, Article 7 which posits that "the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination of technology. 199.   This issue is key not only in the context of the pandemic but also in relation to longer term and structural issues such as climate change and digitalization. The Doha Decision on Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns reaffirms the mandatory nature of Article 66.2, as does the 2001 Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. In our view, it is important that implementation of Article 66.2 should contribute to the objectives of the TRIPS Agreement and enable LDCs to develop a sound and viable technological base. 200.   Clarification of various issues could amplify the impact of technology transfer related initiatives that have been undertaken. These include inter alia: a. Definitional issues around what constitutes technology transfer. b. To what extent incentives provided can be considered additional to official development aide? and c. The robustness of evaluations undertaken to understand the impact of initiatives that have been taken. 201.   LDCs have raised some of these issues among others in document IP/C/W/562. Our delegation sees great value in meaningfully engaging with these issues and stands ready to work with other Members toward full implementation of Article 66.2.

6. Documents referred to in intervention

7. Conclusion

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

8. Summary of the agenda item (if available)

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.

9. Document symbol and date of distribution

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