H.E. Ambassador Dr Lansana GBERIE

United States of America

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

187.   Just over a year ago, the Russian Federation began its brutal and unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Federation continues to inflict death and destruction on Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. The United States of America reiterates its condemnation of Russia's brutal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine. The United States will continue to support Ukraine's courageous efforts to defend itself, uphold its territorial integrity and protect its population. As President Biden reconfirmed during his visit to Kiev our long-term commitment to Ukraine is unwavering and we will work to build a coordinated approach to assistance and to help Ukraine to use the rebuilding process to achieve best practices for laws, regulations and standards across sectors. We call on Russia to immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine, refrain from any further threat or use of force against any other Member and immediately withdraw all its military forces from the territory of Ukraine. 188.   The United States attributes great importance to this review with respect to the obligations under Article 66.2. I would also like to take a moment to thank the Workshop participants and the Secretariat for its smooth organisation. The presentations and statements by all those involved were interesting and insightful and we look forward to continuing this dialogue. Our 2022 submission is an update to our 2021 report, detailing progress in the past year to our programmes aimed to support LDCs in fostering the necessary environment to encourage the effective, voluntary transfer of technology to LDC Members on mutually agreed terms. 189.   The US submission details programmes ranging from intellectual property and trade capacity building to the health, labour, and environmental sectors. Similar to previous submissions, this report includes comments from host country governments and private sector representatives regarding the value of several of the programmes listed in the report. 190.   The United States believes that, for Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement to function effectively, there must be a robust dialogue between developed country and LDC Members. Strong communication between partners is critical to ensure targeted incentives remain responsive to the self-identified technology transfer interests and needs of LDC Members. The United States strives to make this a priority in all our engagements with our host government partners around the world and will continue to explore ways to improve upon the process as we go forward. 191.   Our 2022 report describes over 135 programmes that show how the US Government is working to transform lives. However, no report can truly represent every activity that directly or indirectly incentivizes enterprises and institutions for the purpose of promoting and encouraging technology transfer. Our report attempts to describe the most significant activities and programmes and to convey the breadth and depth of efforts by the United States. 192.   We thank the Secretariat for the opportunity to highlight a few of programmes at the Workshop. The United States is proud of our rich heritage of private sector-led ingenuity and innovation. We fully support voluntary technology transfer on mutually agreed terms.

48. The Council took note of the statements made.

43. The Chair recalled that the Council had conducted the Twentieth Annual Review under Paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement at its meeting in October 2022. 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 .
44. 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 working languages of the WTO, the Secretariat had once again organized a "Workshop on the Implementation of the Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement" which had taken place on 14-15 March 2023, immediately preceding the meeting. The Chair indicated that a number of capital-based delegates who had participated in that Workshop were present at the meeting.
45. The Chair asked the Secretariat to report on this Workshop.
46. A representative of the Secretariat took the floor.
47. The representatives of Bangladesh, on behalf of the LDC Group; Tanzania, on behalf of the African Group; Sierra Leone; the United Kingdom; Nepal; Benin; Bangladesh; Switzerland; Haiti; Mali; the United States of America; the European Union; Australia; Japan; Canada; Norway; Malawi; and Sudan took the floor.
48. The Council took note of the statements made.

IP/C/M/107, IP/C/M/107/Add.1