68. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting of 8-9 June 2010, the Council for TRIPS had agreed to set aside the second day of the present meeting for the annual review under paragraph 8 of the Decision on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health ("the Decision"). In preparation of the review, he had held consultations with a number of Members on how to structure the Council's discussion in order to make the review as useful as possible. In the light of those consultations, he had faxed a list of topics for discussion in the annual review to delegations on 11 October.
69. He further recalled that paragraph 8 of the Decision provided that the Council for TRIPS should annually review the functioning of the System set out in the Decision ("the System") with a view to ensuring its effective operation and report on its operation to the General Council. Furthermore, the paragraph provided that this review should be deemed to fulfil the review requirements of Article IX:4 of the WTO Agreement.
70. He said that the Secretariat had circulated a draft cover note for the Council's report modeled on previous years' reports (JOB/IP/1). This document contained factual information on the implementation and use of the System established under the Decision, on discussions held earlier in the year regarding its operation, and on the acceptance of the Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement. In accordance with the way that the Council had prepared its reports in previous years, the part of the minutes of the meeting reflecting the discussions held under this agenda item would be attached to the cover note as an annex.
71. With respect to the status of acceptances of the Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement that was done at Geneva on 6 December 2005, the Chairman said that, since the Council's meeting in June 2010, Uganda and Mongolia had notified their acceptance of the Protocol on 12 July and 17 September (documents WT/Let/678 and WT/Let/684, respectively). So far 31 notifications of acceptance of the Protocol, including from the European Communities, had been received. The Secretariat had also circulated an update to the note on the status of acceptances of the Protocol (IP/C/W/490/Rev.7) which it would continue to update periodically. The Protocol would enter into force for the Members that had accepted it upon acceptance of the Protocol by two thirds of the Members. The Protocol was open for acceptance by Members until 31 December 2011 or such later date as might be decided by the Ministerial Conference.
72. He said that he had prepared the list of topics for discussion in the annual review in the light of consultations he had held with a number of Members. He had made every effort to ensure that there were appropriate headings under which all the topics delegations had mentioned could adequately be discussed. It was his hope that this way of structuring the discussion would ensure that the Council would have a productive and useful discussion of the System that would help it better understand its operation and any concerns related to it. Bearing in mind that Members had expressed interest in making the review as useful and productive as possible, he had encouraged them in the cover note to the fax to make introductory presentations under topics 1, 2 and 5. He expressed his appreciation to those delegations that had volunteered to make introductory remarks under various headings, and also thanked the secretariats of UNCTAD, the WHO and WIPO, as well as of the WTO, for their willingness to contribute to the discussion.
