1. The Chairperson recalled that five intergovernmental organizations had requested observer status in the TRIPS Council: EFTA, the OAS, the OIV, SELA and SIECA. As agreed at the Council's meeting of 15 July 1997, the Secretariat had sent a letter to each of these organizations, in which their attention had been drawn to, in particular, paragraphs 3 and 4 of the procedures relating to the grant of observer status for international intergovernmental organizations, and in which they had been asked to provide the required information. To date, only EFTA had responded.
