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

Ambassador Eui-yong Chung (Korea, Republic of)
B OBSERVER STATUS FOR INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
3. The Chairperson recalled that, at the March meeting, he had suggested that one way of handling the issue of observers in the Special Session would be to grant observer status to those organizations which already had observer status in the TRIPS Council. The Special Session had agreed to come back to the matter in June in the light of any action that might have been taken by the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) at its 24 April meeting. Since the TNC did not reach an agreement, the matter was back in the hands of the individual negotiating groups and special sessions. He asked delegations whether they could consider granting observer status to those intergovernmental organizations which already had such status in the regular session of the TRIPS Council. That would be as an interim measure pending further guidance from the TNC and on a meeting-by-meeting basis. He further suggested that cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was essential for the Special Session's discussions to be efficiently conducted. WIPO's input and expertise would enable delegations to better reflect on the issues to be discussed. He also suggested that, pending further guidance from the TNC or the General Council, the Special Session might invite WIPO to attend the next session so as to be able to share information on its current work or on the systems it was administering, or to reply to Members' questions. 4. The Chairperson informed Members that, on 18 April 2002, he had received a request from the Organization for Wine and Vine (OIV) for ad hoc observer status in the Special Session of the TRIPS Council. The request, together with attachments, had been faxed to all delegations participating in the Special Session. He recalled that the OIV had made a similar request in the TRIPS Council in 1998; since then, no decision had been taken regarding this request nor regarding requests from other intergovernmental organizations.
The Special Session agreed to revert to this issue in the next meeting in the light of any action by the TNC or the General Council.
TN/IP/M/2