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

Ambassador D. Mwape (Zambia)
1 NEGOTIATION ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MULTILATERAL SYSTEM OF NOTIFICATION AND REGISTRATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS FOR WINES AND SPIRITS
1.107. The representative of Brazil said that her delegation remained committed to addressing the three TRIPS issues, the GI register, GI extension and TRIPS-CBD in parallel and in accordance with the mandate on implementation issues, which formed an integral part of the single undertaking of the Doha Round. 1.108. Regarding the issues of costs and fees, whether it was a register or an online database, the economics remained the same, i.e., there was no "free lunch". If the resources were to come from the WTO budget, this necessarily meant that the WTO would take that money from one basket to put it in the GI register basket. In Brazil's view, it seemed fair that those countries that had more GIs to register would have to pay more for the establishment and maintenance of the register. 1.109. Regarding S&D the proposal put forward by a large number of developing countries, including Brazil, provided for a transitional period during which developing and least developed country Members would be permitted to include their GIs in the register, but would not be requested to consult it in their domestic procedures. In other words, during that period, the provisions on legal effects would not apply for these countries.
The Special Session took note of the statements made.
TN/IP/M/28