181. The Chairman recalled that Article 24.2 of the TRIPS Agreement provided that the Council shall keep under review the application of the provisions of the Section on geographical indications, and that the first such review shall take place within two years of the entry into force of the WTO Agreement. At the Council's last formal meeting, the previous Chairman had concluded the discussions under this agenda item by saying that he would convey to the new Chairman the interest expressed by some delegations to have a more structured discussion on this item, and that he would ask the new Chairman to consult Members to see what their thinking was in this regard. Accordingly, this matter was discussed at the Council's informal meeting on 23 May. A suggestion made by a number of delegations at that meeting was to request the Secretariat to update its summary note contained in document IP/C/W/253. It was also suggested that those Members that had not yet responded to the underlying questionnaire should be requested to do so. In this regard, the Chairman recalled that a checklist of questions had been circulated in May 1998 in document IP/C/13 and Addendum 1, which sought information on the way Members provided protection for geographical indications. At its meeting in March 2002, the Council had urged those Members that had not yet provided responses to the questionnaire to do so. To date, the Council had received information from 44 Members in response to the questionnaire. Those responses that were received prior to April 2001, were summarized in a Secretariat note contained in document IP/C/W/253. Furthermore, the Chairman noted that a number of other ideas were presented at the aforementioned informal meeting.
