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

Ambassador D. Mwape (Zambia)
European Union
B.i First sub-question
73. The representative of the European Union said that New Zealand's remark that the manner in which the information of the register was taken into account should not be prescribed was in contradiction with an obligation to take information on the register into account, which was advocated by the proponents of the minority proposal. If the information was not to be taken into account, then the exercise would be pointless. In this connection, he agreed with the Swiss delegation that it should not be up to Members to decide whether or not to take into account information on the register, essentially for the following reasons: firstly, leaving Members to decide would create legal uncertainty and discrepancies, and would of course not be in the interest of the right holders or of business in general; and secondly, the European Union considered that it did not fulfil the mandate which called for a registration system, not a database system. 74. With respect to the new list of questions proposed by the US delegation to amend the Chairman's sub-questions, he said that, while his delegation did not wish to leave any stones unturned, it considered that the purpose of the discussions was to make progress and not to create further questions. It was his view that the questions circulated by the Chair after taking into account the work of his predecessor were fully sufficient and comprehensive.
The Special Session took note of the statements made.
TN/IP/M/26