68. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting of 30 August 2003, the General Council had adopted the decision on "Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health" (WT/L/540). Paragraph 11 of that Decision provided that the Decision, including the waivers granted in it, should terminate for each Member on the date on which an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement replacing its provisions would take effect for that Member. Furthermore, it instructed the TRIPS Council to initiate, by the end of 2003, work on the preparation of such an amendment with a view to its adoption within six months, i.e. by June 2004, on the understanding that the amendment would be based, where appropriate, on the Decision, and on the further understanding that it would not be part of the negotiations referred to in paragraph 45 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration.
69. He recalled that, at the Council's meeting in March 2004, his predecessor had reported on his consultations on the implementation of paragraph 11 of the Decision. In summarising his report, he had noted his consultations had revealed that there seemed to be significant differences among delegations in regard to the substantive content and the legal form that an amendment to replace the paragraph 6 Decision should have, although many delegations had emphasised that they remained ready to consider alternative solutions. He had concluded that further work was required.
70. The Chairman said that his own consultations prior to the present meeting had indicated that, in regard to issues of content and legal form, positions had not evolved. With regard to the issue of timing, he said that there was general acceptance among delegations that the Council would need more time in order to complete its work on the amendment. As regards such further work, he mentioned four points on which his consultations had indicated that there was no disagreement. First, given that the Decision remained in force until the amendment came into force, providing more time would not mean that any gap in legal cover would be created. The second was that all Members continued to be committed to replacing the Decision of 30 August 2003, with an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement, as called for by paragraph 11 of that Decision. The third was that the time-frame specified in paragraph 11 was one which provided for flexibility, with the use of the words "with a view to its adoption within six months", and this left it open to the TRIPS Council to provide for more time for this work if necessary. The fourth point was that paragraph 8 of the Decision provided for the TRIPS Council to review its functioning annually, which meant that the first such review would take place later in the year.
71. While there was a range of views on the arrangements that should be made for the further work on this matter, the consultations had indicated a willingness to look positively at finding a way forward on the basis of a formulation where the Council would agree to continue its work on the preparation of the amendment with a view to the TRIPS Council making a recommendation by the end of March 2005, so that the General Council could conclude its work on the amendment at its first meeting thereafter.
72. The Chairman drew the attention of the Council to the addendum to the note by the Legal Affairs Division of the Secretariat on the legal significance of footnotes in WTO agreements, dated 12 May 2004, which had been prepared at the request of his predecessor. The note attempted to respond to some additional questions of a legal nature that had been raised by a number of Members when the first note had been discussed at the Council's informal meeting of 4 March 2004.
