41. The representative of Australia supported Chile in that what was being discussed was only a register for wines and spirits. He said that it was unfortunate that some delegations interested in GI extension in the regular session of the TRIPS Council did not listen to the discussion in the Special Session. Members should bear in mind and not forget that what the demandeurs in the Special Session wanted was that whatever would be agreed upon on wines and spirits should be automatically extended to all other products. For this reason, discussions in the Special Session were important because once the register was established, there would be inevitable complaints from certain Members that there was an imbalance in having a register for wines and spirits and not for other products. He also noted that there were, however, some demandeurs in the area of GI extension who did not automatically accept the idea that the register would be applicable to products covered by the extension.
42. Turning to the erga omnes effect of the challenges as described by Hungary, he took the example of "Tokay" in order to get a better understanding of what that meant. Under the demandeurs' proposal, Members would immediately be faced with the question of Tokay. The Oxford Companion to Wine defined Tokay as a traditional name for the grape Tokay wine of Hungary and Australian name for the Muscatel grape. The Oxford Companion to Wine also mentioned a product called "Tokay d'Alsace", defined as Tokay d'Alsace or simply Tokay, which was for long time the Alsace name for "Pinot gris". That variety had probably been taken to Hungary in the 14th Century. Europe's law-makers had proposed "Tokay Pinot gris" as an intermediate stage towards the eventual elimination of the word "Tokay" from Alsace. However, in the same Oxford Companion to Wine, liquor "Tokay" was described as one of Australia's great gifts to the world, namely from Muscatel, traditionally known as "Tokay" in Australia. He pointed out that, according to his understanding, "Tokay Pinot gris" was listed in Annex 2 of the EC Regulation 753/2002 as a variety "that include[d] a geographical indication". "Tokay" had long been used in Australia as a synonym for Muscatel; it was currently on the Australian wine register as an Australian name to be used only in relation to fortified wines. He presumed that "Tokay" was also used in the Slovak Republic. The day that the multilateral register got established, he foresaw a situation where Australia, Hungary, the Slovak Republic and maybe one or two others might notify the term "Tokay". What would happen then? Those Members would spend the next years, or whatever the period was under the EU's system, comparing, arguing and disagreeing, would have to go to some arbitration panel and would spend the next two years deciding who should be on the arbitration panel because of the difficulties of ensuring that the panel was composed of independent persons. Another two years would then be spent mobilizing all the information that was needed, carrying out lengthy and expensive public opinion surveys, etc. The arbitrators might reach the conclusion that it was a generic term. Such decision would have an erga omnes effect: in other words, no country had to protect it. He wondered what the benefit would be of a system where some Members would spend the WTO's time and money and apparently, the money of those Members who did not want to participate in the system. In his view, that was going from one extreme to another. Clearly, the provisions of Article 23.4 called for a voluntary system, as Argentina had pointed out, and the real issue was whether it had a legal effect on all Members. He was convinced that many countries did not want to participate in this system because they did not have an interest therein and should therefore not incur costs or have the burden of a big Secretariat who would have to administer the system.
