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
91. The representative of India congratulated the Chairman on his appointment and expressed his appreciation to Ambassador Karen Tan for her work as pro tempore Chairperson. His delegation agreed with the Chairman's structuring of their future work in the Special Session. 92. He said that the delegations of the European Union and Switzerland before him had elaborated on the legal effects and that he would not reiterate the points they had raised. Some Members, however, had raised questions about special and differential provisions in TN/C/W/52. His delegation wished to spell out the intrinsic linkages existing between the three TRIPS issues of the register, GI extension and TRIPS/CBD in TN/C/W/52 and special and differential treatment that referred to all these three issues, as set out in paragraph 9 of the proposal. He said that the register proposal contained in TN/C/W/52 included not only paragraphs 1, 2, 3 but also paragraph 9. The reason why special and differential had not been further elaborated was because TN/C/W/52 was not a text proposal but contained key parameters for a ministerial decision. Details of several elements of the three TRIPS issues had been left to negotiations following modalities. It was at that stage that it would be more appropriate to work on the details of special and differential treatment provisions. At that stage Members would be clearer about the different elements of the three issues, and special and differential provisions would be worked out accordingly. His delegation noted that in contrast the joint proposal was silent on the issue of special and differential treatment. If the joint proposal proponents considered that voluntary participation was a special and differential provision in a multilateral register, then it was a truly odd special and differential provision in the WTO. His delegation would like to pose the question to the proponents what would be the special and differential provisions under their proposal for developing countries that had finite but not substantial interest in a GI register.
TN/IP/M/25