140. The representative of United States said that he was not sure that the EC delegation had provided any greater certainty with respect to the names that the US might put forward under the EC proposal, that the EC would be bound to protect them in their domestic markets. In this regard, he expressed doubts whether many countries would be willing to surrender the authority of their domestic regulatory procedures to decide whether or not geographical indications were protected and how they were protected under the TRIPS Agreement. He did not know whether there would be many countries which would be comfortable with surrendering that ability to a supranational authority.
