135. The Chairman recalled that paragraph 8 of the Decision on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health provided that the Council for TRIPS should review annually the functioning of the system set out in the Decision with a view to ensuring its effective operation and should annually report on its operation to the General Council. Furthermore, the paragraph provided that this review should be deemed to fulfil the review requirements of Article IX:4 of the WTO Agreement.
136. He said that the Secretariat had prepared a draft cover note to the Council's report modelled on that of last year's report, which had been circulated as JOB(06)/244. The draft cover page contained factual information on the implementation and use of the system established under the Decision and on the work on the preparation of an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement pursuant to paragraph 11 of the Decision. He proposed that the part of the minutes of the meeting reflecting the discussions held under this agenda item be attached to the cover note. This format would follow the way that the Council prepared its report last year.
137. As regards the status of acceptances of the Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement that was done at Geneva on 6 December 2005, he said that Switzerland and El Salvador had notified, respectively, their acceptance of the Protocol on 13 and 19 September 2006 (documents WT/Let/547 and 548). He also recalled that the United States had notified its acceptance on 17 December 2005. Therefore, to date, three Members had accepted the Protocol, which would enter into force for these Members upon acceptance of the Protocol by two thirds of the Members.
138. The Chairman recalled that the Protocol was open for acceptance by Members until 1 December 2007 or such later date as may be decided by the Ministerial Conference. As this date was only a little over a year away, he encouraged Members to ensure that necessary measures were being taken in capitals to allow the consideration of the acceptance in a timely fashion. With a view to regularly updating the Council on the state of play in regard to acceptances, he suggested that the Secretariat be requested to prepare a note setting out the status of acceptances, which would be updated for each meeting of the Council.
