22. The representative of the European Communities doubted that there had been concrete ideas in the minds of the TRIPS negotiators as to what could or should be the subject matter of "appropriate arrangements for cooperation with WIPO" as referred to in Article 68 of the Agreement. It was now up to the TRIPS Council to define what was meant by this; the prime, if not the exclusive, responsibility for doing so rested with the TRIPS Council. As far as the substance of that cooperation was concerned, an important, perhaps prime, candidate for further discussion and elucidation was the issue of notification requirements. Others had also referred to technical assistance as an area of possible cooperation between the WTO and WIPO. His delegation would also like to have a discussion on that issue in further detail, if for no other reason than that it was essential that, when technical assistance was provided - be it by WIPO or other international organizations - and covered matters arising under the TRIPS Agreement, such technical assistance would be provided in a manner which was consonant with the way in which the TRIPS provisions should be interpreted. In that context the only source could be, apart from the collective wisdom of the TRIPS Council, the WTO Secretariat. When considering the question of cooperation with WIPO, substance should precede procedure. Over the next several months, the TRIPS Council should first seek a sufficient degree of consensus on the substance of possible cooperation between the WTO and WIPO. Thereafter, the question had to be addressed of how such possible cooperation be best discussed with WIPO. His delegation was not convinced that the establishment of joint working parties, working groups or the like would necessarily be the best possible way of approaching these questions at this stage, although he did not necessarily exclude such possibilities later.
