23. The Chairman suggested that, since the practice in the Council's past meetings had been that delegates address these three agenda items together, the Council again take them up at the same time. He informed the Council that it had received a communication from Switzerland (IP/C/W/423), which contained additional comments by it on its proposals submitted to WIPO regarding the declaration of the source of genetic resources and traditional knowledge in patent applications.
24. Reporting on the consultations he had held on these three agenda items, he recalled that, at its meeting in March 2004, the Council had had extensive discussion on how future work on these three agenda items should be organized. At that meeting, the Chair had concluded that it might be necessary for his successor to hold consultations before the present meeting on this matter. Accordingly, he had held a series of consultations on this subject. These consultations had confirmed that there was a common view that it would be useful to find a way of having a more structured and focused discussion in the TRIPS Council on these matters. A number of options for how this could be done had been put forward and discussed. He had detected some signs of flexibility and a broad willingness to engage in a process of identifying areas of convergence in regard to the provisions of Article 27.3(b), as had been suggested by the African Group. However, he regretted that, despite the efforts made by all parties, the consultations had not developed to a point where he would have been able to put a set of suggestions to the Council at this meeting.
