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

Ambassador D. Mwape (Zambia)
B NEGOTIATION ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MULTILATERAL SYSTEM OF NOTIFICATION AND REGISTRATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS FOR WINES AND SPIRITS
45. The representative of El Salvador congratulated the Chairman on his election and thanked Ambassador Karen Tan for the transparent and balanced manner in which she had conducted the work in the past months. He said that his delegation, as a sponsor of the joint proposal, supported the establishment of a multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical indications for wines and spirits that would not lead to an increase or decrease of existing rights and obligations of Members under the TRIPS Agreement, regardless of whether or not a Member elected to participate in the system. As the Chairman had stated, the technical discussions on the register were still ongoing. The report by Ambassador Trevor Clarke contained in TN/IP/19 represented a sound basis for the work in progress in the Special Session and included issues such as legal aspects, participation and other elements relating to costs, fees and administrative burdens. 46. In his delegation's view, the issue of special and differential treatment mentioned in that report was of great interest for developing countries, such as El Salvador. In the course of consultations with Ambassador Karen Tan regarding this issue, his delegation had suggested pursuing work, based on technical discussions, as was the practice of other negotiating groups in the WTO. He agreed that discussions should be organized in clusters focusing on aspects on which this Special Session had not commenced discussions, such as special and differential treatment. 47. Like other sponsors of the joint proposal, his delegation would request the Chairman to consider the principle of inclusiveness and transparency and conduct open-ended meetings, so that the broader Membership would be able to participate and express positions on matters that were of special interest to economies such as El Salvador. 48. In addition, he said it would be helpful to have presentations from Members on their national systems and practical case studies, such as the ones circulated by the delegation of Hong Kong, China, which his delegation had found of great value. 49. With respect to the Chairman's proposal for taking the negotiations forward towards having one text on a multilateral register, he said that his delegation could share this approach as long as that text remained under the negotiating mandate of the Special Session.
TN/IP/M/25