217. The Chairman recalled that, prior to the Council's meeting in September 2002, the Secretariat had circulated three notes on the review of the provisions of Article 27.3(b), the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore (IP/C/W/369, 368 and 370). He advised that the discussions on these items had continued during the last meeting held in September 2002, and he informed the Council that a communication had been received from the European Communities and their member States and circulated in document IP/C/W/383.
218. Furthermore, he reminded the Council that during the March meeting he had urged more Members to provide, by 1 June 2002, responses to the questionnaire on the implementation of Article 27.3(b) and that the Secretariat had accordingly issued an airgram (WTO/AIR/1756) on 26 March 2002 reminding Members to submit their responses. Since the September meeting, the Secretariat had received responses and supplementary information from five Members, namely the Czech Republic; Estonia; Hong Kong, China; Lithuania; and Thailand. The Secretariat would update the synoptic table in its summary note IP/C/W/273 in light of the new submissions as soon as possible. Finally, he recalled that the Council had agreed at the September meeting to invite a representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to make a presentation on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as the "FAO treaty").
