49. The Chairman said that, under a Council decision of February 2003, developed country Members were to submit annual reports on actions taken or planned in pursuance of their commitments under Article 66.2. They were to provide new detailed reports every third year and updates in the intervening years. The fifth set of detailed annual reports under this procedure had been presented to the Council in October 2015. In June 2016, the Council had requested developed country Members to update their annual reports in time for the present meeting, and the Secretariat had circulated a reminder.
50. The Council had received updates to the annual reports from Japan, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, the United States and New Zealand, circulated in document IP/C/W/616 and addenda. The report submitted by the European Union and individual member States, namely Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, had been made available as a room document on documents online and would also be circulated as an addendum to document IP/C/W/616.
51. Paragraph 2 of the Council's Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement explained that the annual review meetings provided Members with an opportunity to pose questions in relation to the information submitted and request additional information; discuss the effectiveness of the incentives provided in promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least developed country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base; and consider any points relating to the operation of the reporting procedure established by the Decision.
52. Since some of the information had been received only very recently, and most of it was available only in its original language, the Chairman said that he intended to give Members an opportunity to make further comments on this information at the Council's next meeting.
53. At the request by LDC Members, the Secretariat had organized a workshop on transfer of technology under Article 66.2 back-to-back with the Council's end-of-year meeting. The ninth in the series of annual workshops had been held on 7 November 2016, bringing together LDC and developed country experts to discuss this matter at a very practical level, building on the earlier workshops. The Chairman said that he had personally taken part in and welcomed the constructive exchange of views that was useful to both LDC and developed country delegations. In order to record the questions posed to reporting developed country Members on the occasion of the previous workshop held on 19 October 2015, a compilation of these questions had been circulated to delegations.
54. The representatives of the European Union, Australia, the United States, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Benin on behalf of the LDC Group and India took the floor.
55. The representative of the Secretariat took the floor.
56. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.
