294. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting in March 2002, the Council had urged those Members that had not provided responses to the Checklist of Questions contained in document IP/C/13 and Add. 1 to do so before the present meeting, if possible. The Secretariat had issued airgram WTO/AIR/1756 on 26 March 2002 to remind Members of the Council's invitation to provide this information. Since the Council's meeting in June 2002, further responses had been obtained from Lithuania and Morocco, and circulated in Addenda 24 and 25 to document IP/C/W/117. To date, the Council had received responses to the Checklist from 42 Members. These responses, except for the four most recent ones, had been summarized in a Secretariat note contained in document IP/C/W/253. He informed the Council that it had just received a communication from Canada providing information on the protection of geographical indications in Canada (subsequently circulated in document JOB(02)/119). At the Council's last meeting, the representative of the European Communities had indicated that the European Communities and their member States had intended to submit questions to Australia in relation to its responses to the Checklist of Questions circulated in document IP/C/W/117/Add.19. The European Communities had indicated that, by means of this list of questions, it was seeking further clarification with respect to the relevant Australian legislation, its interpretation and application in practical terms, as well as its implementation in conformity with the provisions in Articles 22 to 24 of the TRIPS Agreement. Since then, the final list of these questions had been circulated in JOB(02)/97.
