1.20. The representative of the European Union said that the EU's position remained unchanged for the moment. His delegation remained committed to the W/52 coalition and would wish to see parallel progress in the WTO on the three TRIPS issues. Members of the W/52 coalition had regular contact on the matter and he believed that the event of the previous day, as well as the successful developments in WIPO and in many bilateral agreements, that Members were negotiating and had successfully negotiated, were testimony to this. In his view, one could say that there seemed to be some sort of global consensus emerging on the question of GIs. At the present stage, however, given the state of negotiations in other areas of the WTO, the EU did not have any concrete proposals to table. Since there was no momentum in the negotiations and in the current WTO context, his delegation saw no urgency to raise the profile of the TRIPS issues in Buenos Aires. His delegation believed, however, that the three TRIPS issues should be kept in the agenda in order to continue working on them after MC11, and that Members should be open in this regard.
