57. The Chairman recalled that, in paragraph 18 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, the Ministerial Conference had noted that "issues related to the extension of the protection of geographical indications provided for in Article 23 to products other than wines and spirits will be addressed in the Council for TRIPS pursuant to paragraph 12 of this Declaration". While there were a number of different interpretations of this mandate, he believed that there was a common understanding that the Council had to report on this issue to the Trade Negotiations Committee by the end of 2002. This set an important time-frame that the Council should take into account in organizing its work.
58. He recalled that, at its meeting in March, the Council had had a thorough discussion on the substance of the issue. Since that meeting, the Council had received a communication from Switzerland on behalf of Bulgaria, Cuba, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the European Communities and their member States, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, India, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Malta, Mauritius, Pakistan, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand and Turkey (document IP/C/W/353).
