132. The Chairman recalled that, at the Eighth Session of the Ministerial Conference, Ministers had directed the TRIPS Council to continue its examination of the scope and modalities for complaints of the types provided for under subparagraphs 1(b) and 1(c) of Article XXIII of GATT 1994 (so-called "non-violation and situation complaints") and make recommendations to their next Session, which they had decided to hold in December 2013. It was agreed that, in the meantime, Members would not initiate such complaints under the TRIPS Agreement.
133. He said that discussions on that issue dated back to 1998, in view of the initial deadline for the Council to make recommendations by 1999, and that Members might wish to take the time now to consider what form a concrete recommendation to the next Ministerial Conference could take rather than working on the assumption that the matter would be deferred yet again.
134. As requested by the Council at its meeting in June, the Secretariat had updated its earlier summary note on the points raised in the Council's substantive discussion of this matter so far. This updated summary note had now been circulated as document IP/C/W/349/Rev.2.
135. He said that, as mentioned at that meeting, he had continued to be informally in touch with delegations to see if they had any ideas on how the Council's discussion on the matter could best be facilitated. In these subsequent consultations, some delegations had said that it would help them to consider the matter if the Secretariat would organize an informal background briefing on the notion of non-violation and situation complaints and on the views expressed in the Council discussions to date.
136. In response to this request, the Secretariat had held a briefing on this topic on the morning of 29 October. The purpose of that meeting had been to provide factual background information on non-violation and situation complaints to delegations in order to enable them to engage in substantive discussions and to facilitate the Council's consideration of the matter.
