68. The representative of the United States said that he appreciated the softer nature of the EC and Hong Kong, China proposals on this point, which would make it closer to an agreement than some others. Nonetheless, he expressed concern about this if it were made mandatory, as it still appeared that there was a distinction between those two proposals and the joint proposal. The information involved drew back to the question of what the purpose of the system was and, in looking at how to facilitate protection, this information would not be necessary to achieve that goal. This also raised some questions: what was the purpose of requiring a date of protection? Was it to use that date as a basis to provide protection in a third party's jurisdiction? That seemed to be the case in at least one, if not two, of the proposals.
