33. The representative of Malaysia associated her delegation with the statements made by Singapore, Thailand and Australia that participation in the system should be voluntary, as clearly provided for under Article 23.4. The wording of that Article suggested that some Members would participate and others would not. Many Members, including Malaysia, did not have GIs eligible for protection and would therefore not be able to participate in the notification and registration system as such. In terms of cost-sharing for running the system, she agreed with statements made that Members not participating should not be required to contribute to such costs. However, if Members with GIs eligible for protection were to seek such protection in other Members as was currently possible under the TRIPS Agreement, that would, in the normal course of administering the protection, not preclude the use of the system as a reference. However, that would depend on the outcome of the negotiations on the requirements of the system, which should be without legal and financial obligations for a non-participating Member. With respect to the multilateral character of the system under negotiation, she noted the comments made by the delegation of Singapore. She added that the multilateral character of a system depended not only on the numbers but also on whether the system was open or not to all Members during the negotiating process, to all Members from different regions and whether it was negotiated under the auspices of a multilateral forum, which in this case was the WTO.
