139. The representative of Australia said that her delegation had thought it would be useful to have a presentation on the CRN simply to clarify its technical understanding of some of the issues at hand. Members would now be familiar with paragraph 4 of the draft decision contained in TN/IP/W/10, which proposed the registration of geographical indications on a database and set forth certain ideas on what might be contained in that database. After having listened to previous interventions as well as the presentations and the questions and replies, her delegation was of the view that the existing WTO system offered a platform in which the ideas put forward by the co-sponsors of the draft decision could fit. Notification obligations did exist in WTO agreements. She pointed out that the co-sponsors had not proposed that the administering body be the CRN.
140. With regard to the discussion regarding the Lisbon Agreement, she said that some questions posed were not relevant to the ongoing negotiations in the Special Session. The discussion showed that the system proposed by the demandeurs was replicating in many ways the Lisbon system, and that in other ways was going far beyond that system and would constitute a "Lisbon plus". Her delegation strongly questioned what the utility was of replicating within the WTO system a treaty which had only 23 members and even of going beyond it.
