H.E. Ambassador Dr Lansana GBERIE

Chairperson

17 ELECTION OF CHAIRPERSON

390.   Thank you very much for your kind words and congratulations again. I would like to thank all delegations for your trust and your cooperation during my term as Chair. It has been very interesting, very exciting, very challenging, but I think that you are a much nicer person than I am, and you will be treated more nicely, frankly. I am very grateful for the chance that I have had, and I would like to thank particularly the Secretariat, the very hard-working Secretariat that guided me through the year and supported my work. I am grateful also to the African Group who pushed me to do this, and who stood by me with the LDC Group, a very active LDC Group in the Council for TRIPS, and I am grateful to all Members. 391.   I am particularly grateful to a few Members that have been very much supportive: Australia, New Zealand and there are several other countries. I thank you all, the UK, the United States, Brazil, and everyone for the support. I have enjoyed this, but all good things must come to an end, and I think I will enjoy the afterlife better, the after-TRIPS life. We have no further items on the agenda, we are coming to the end of this meeting, and this is the place for the customary farewells to those delegates who are leaving their posts. We are informed that Mr Assan Touray from the delegation of The Gambia is leaving us. He has been an active member of the Council and we would like to thank him for his contribution to the work of the WTO and the Council for TRIPS, in particular, and I wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.

80. The Council so agreed.

78. The Chair turned to the last agenda item, namely "election of the Chairperson".
79. He noted that the rules of procedure provided that "[t]he election shall take place at the first meeting of the year and shall take effect at the end of the meeting", and that "[t]he Chairperson […] shall hold office until the end of the first meeting of the following year". He recalled that, at its meeting on 6-7 March 2023, the General Council had noted consensus on the Chairpersons for regular and negotiating WTO bodies. On the basis of the understanding reached by the General Council, he proposed that the Council for TRIPS elect H.E. Mrs Pimchanok Pitfield, Ambassador of Thailand, as its chairperson for the coming year.
80. The Council so agreed.
81. The representatives of Thailand; the European Union; Bangladesh; Nepal; the United Kingdom; Tanzania, on behalf of the African Group; Japan; the United States of America; Indonesia; Cambodia; Canada; Kenya; Egypt; Korea, Republic of; Brazil and the Secretariat took the floor.
82. The Chair thanked delegations for their trust and cooperation during his term as TRIPS Council Chair during the past year and expressed his hope that they would also support the efforts of his successor in addressing the items on the Council's agenda. He wished delegations and the new Chair much success in that endeavour.
83. The meeting was closed.

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