96. The representative of the Secretariat said that it would be easier for the Secretariat to provide information about actual costs in relation to its existing activities than to "speculate" about future costs under a possible system the parameters of which were unknown. If the Special Session so wished, it would be possible to provide information on the direct operating costs of the Central Registry of Notification (CRN) in the addendum to document TN/IP/W/4. He said, however, that that information would probably give an incomplete picture because many costs were absorbed in the WTO general budget and it would be difficult to identify those costs. There were also some direct operating costs, which could be reflected, such as those related to personnel. As regards translation, without knowing the scale of the translation that might be involved in a register and what might be the distribution of the burden between the notifying country and the Secretariat, it would be difficult to do more than to give a figure for the cost per page. If that would be useful, the Secretariat could provide such information. As regards panels, assessment of costs would be more difficult because panels varied from one to another and the bulk of those costs were absorbed in the Secretariat's general budget; however, if the Special Session so wished, the Secretariat would see whether there was some information about the typical range of costs to the Secretariat in servicing a panel case. As regards sources for additional information, the WTO did not have any information to be shared at that moment. He suggested that the WIPO might have information based on its own experience.
