297. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting in March 2002, the Council had urged those Members that had not provided responses to the checklist of questions contained in document IP/C/13 and Add.1 to do so before the present meeting, if possible. The Secretariat had issued airgram WTO/AIR/1756 on 26 March 2002 to remind Members of the Council's invitation to provide this information. Since the Council's meeting in September 2002, further responses had been received from Cuba and circulated in addendum 26 to document IP/C/W/117. He informed the Council that to date, responses to the Checklist had been received from 43 Members. These responses, except for the five most recent ones, had been summarized in a Secretariat note contained in document IP/C/W/253. At the Council's last meeting, Canada had introduced its communication JOB(02)/119 that provided information on the protection of geographical indications in Canada. Furthermore, he informed the Council that Australia had just submitted a communication providing a brief overview of the main features of its domestic regime for the protection of geographical indications (subsequently circulated as document IP/C/W/392).
