78. In response to the question posed by India to clarify the provision in the TRIPS Agreement, the representative of Canada said that her delegation would be interested in hearing more from India and other Members about their analysis of the possible impact of wrongful or non-disclosure on the TRIPS Agreement as a whole, or on specific provisions, as appropriate. She noted that, in previous Members' submissions, both Articles 27 and 29 of the TRIPS Agreement had been mentioned as being relevant. Perhaps the impact on these Articles could be a useful starting-point.
79. In response to some delegations' suggestion of text-based negotiations, she said that the mandate given in paragraph 39 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration was to "intensify" the existing consultative process on the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD, which should not be interpreted as an indication that Members had agreed or conceded to the need for text-based negotiation on this issue. Rather, the fact that paragraph 39 said that the General Council was to review and take any appropriate action on the progress made on implementation-related issues by 31 July 2006, including on the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD, demonstrated that all options remained still open and available.
80. Referring to the Peruvian statement on the competence of the Council to examine national experiences of access and benefit sharing, the representative of Australia said that, given Members' mandate to discuss the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD, some cross pollination of discussions would take place. It was necessary for Members to understand what national regimes did and what the gaps were, which would help to address the uncertainty that would flow from a disclosure requirement. For example, what if a country didn't have an access and benefit-sharing regime, or what if there was a dispute about who should be asked for their prior informed consent? She said that Australia had access and benefit-sharing legislation in relation to the use of genetic resources and had experience domestically with some of the disputes that could arise where different communities were claiming the right to use certain resources.
