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

H.E. Ambassador Dr Lansana GBERIE
4; 5; 6 REVIEW OF THE PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE 27.3(B); RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TRIPS AGREEMENT AND THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY; PROTECTION OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND FOLKLORE
78.   At the outset, we would like to recall our previous statements on agenda items 4, 5, and 6 of which our position remains unchanged. Our delegation further stresses the need to amend Articles 27.3(b) and 29 of the TRIPS Agreement in order to prevent misappropriation and misuse of genetic resources and traditional knowledge through effective and complimentary international arrangements. 79.   On that note, in order to provide us with the necessary information to move forward based on evidence, facts, and objective data on this longstanding issue, it would be in our best interest to agree on updating the long overdue Secretariat summary notes and to invite the CBD Secretariat to brief the Council on the Nagoya Protocol and its developments. 80.   Indonesia urges that we move from this stalemate, starting with an "information session" involving relevant organizations, which we will also be doing in other Committees, and we are ready to engage constructively with Members on these matters.
The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to these matters at its next meeting.
17. The Chair proposed to address these three agenda items together. He recalled that one tool for the review under item 4 was the information provided by Members in response to lists of questions on Article 27.3(b). He said that the latest Annual Report on Notifications and other Information Flows circulated by the Secretariat illustrated that responses to that checklist had been rather sparse recently. So far, only 28 Members had responded to the lists of questions on Article 27.3(b). The Chair thus encouraged Members to submit responses to these checklists, and to update their previous submissions if they were out of date.
18. The Chair noted that two long-standing procedural issues had been discussed extensively on the record at every regular meeting of the Council for almost ten years. The first was the suggestion for the Secretariat to update three factual notes on the Council's discussions on the TRIPS and CBD and related items; these notes were initially prepared in 2002 and last updated in 2006. The second was the request to invite the CBD Secretariat to brief the Council on the Nagoya Protocol to the CBD, initially proposed in October 2010.
19. The Chair noted that the delegations' positions on these issues were well-known and had already extensively recorded in the Council's minutes and therefore suggested that delegations focus their interventions on suggestions on how to resolve the differences and on how make progress on substantive issues.
20. The representatives of South Africa; India; Bangladesh; Sri Lanka; Indonesia, Brazil; Nigeria; Peru; United States of America; Japan; South Africa; Korea, Republic of and China took the floor.
21. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to these matters at its next meeting.
IP/C/M/106, IP/C/M/106/Add.1