1.75. The representative of Turkey said that that the work program from January until March and the six elements proposed by the Chair in their sequence had facilitated the negotiations, and that timely open-ended meetings had contributed to the transparency of the process. Her delegation was of the view that the draft composite text would serve as a useful basis for further negotiations. Turkey had always held the view that there was parallelism between the three TRIPS issues of the GI Register, GI Extension and TRIPS-CBD. Recalling that the W/52 Group was expected to provide a joint text on the GI-Register as soon as possible, she said that consultations within the group were still ongoing in view of the importance of all three TRIPS-related subjects. Clearly, due to the large number of sponsors and the potential consequences of the issues tabled in the W/52 proposal, coordination was taking time. With respect to the GI-Register, her delegation was pleased to see that the composite text covered textual proposals aiming at extending the register to all products. A register limited to wines and spirits would be a repetition of a shortcoming of the Uruguay Round which kept meaningful TRIPS GI protection to geographical indications for wines and spirits only.
