Actas - Consejo de los ADPIC - Ver detalles de la intervención/declaración

Ambassador Alfredo Suescum (Panama)
17.3 Announcement of 18 September by the Government of Ireland regarding the legislative programme for the autumn session 2013 which includes generic packaging of tobacco products under Section C
421. Cuba fully supports the statement made by the Dominican Republic. While we have repeatedly said that we respect the right of governments to protect the health of their citizens, we consider the plain packaging measures for tobacco to be unnecessary barriers to trade which violate specific legal provisions of several WTO Agreements, in particular the TRIPS Agreement. Five Members of the WTO have expressed their concern regarding this issue and there are various proceedings under way in the DSB. We would therefore urge any Members that are thinking of introducing measures of this type to wait for the results of the dispute settlement proceedings before actually implementing them.
The Council took note of the statements made.
17.5. The Chairman said that the delegation of the Dominican Republic wished to make a statement under "Other Business" concerning the announcement of 18 September by the Government of Ireland regarding the legislative programme for the autumn session 2013 which included generic packaging of tobacco products under Section C.

17.6. The representatives of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, Uruguay and China took the floor. The statements will be reproduced in an addendum to the present record.

17.7. The Chairman recalled that delegations should not enter into substantive debates under "Other Business" and avoid lengthy statements. He urged delegations to bear in mind the underlying rationale in this regard.

17.8. The Council took note of the statements made.

IP/C/M/74, IP/C/M/74/Add.1