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

Ambassador Chak Mun See (Singapore)
M NON-VIOLATION COMPLAINTS
170. The representative of South Africa said that his delegation was among those which supported a continued discussion of scope and modalities. The Council was currently in a "legal vacuum" resulting in an unpredictable state of affairs as far as the scope and modalities to deal with non violation complaints were concerned. The Council also had the option to leave the matter to panels to decide on a case-by-case basis, but his delegation was of the view that it was important for the Council to show leadership, i.e. that Members were prepared to take responsibility and take decisions. A decision on scope and modalities of non-violation complaints would be of a political, not just a legal nature. In his view, the dispute settlement mechanism was basically inaccessible for developing countries, not to mention least-developed countries; this situation would worsen if the Council did not address issues such as the present one. It was not accurate to say, as the US paper stated, that the TRIPS Council had fully examined the scope and modalities of non-violation complaints and, in any event, it was unhelpful to the development of the WTO system if the Council would not continue its examination merely because the time had lapsed for this examination irrespective of whether the issue had been dealt with sufficiently.
IP/C/M/27