122. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting in October 2011, the Council had taken up its annual review of technical cooperation. Since then, the European Union had provided a communication entitled "Technical Cooperation Activities and Assistance for Least-Developed Countries" (IP/C/W/568), which complemented the information the European Union had provided in September 2011 for the Council's annual review (IP/C/W/560/Add.7). It contained further information regarding specific IP technical assistance that the European Union had provided to least developed countries, including in response to a number of priority needs identified by them.
123. He also recalled that paragraph 2 of the Council's 2005 decision on the "Extension of the Transition Period under Article 66.1 for Least-Developed Country Members" provided that "with a view to facilitating targeted technical and financial cooperation programmes, all the least-developed country Members will provide to the Council for TRIPS, preferably by 1 January 2008, as much information as possible on their individual priority needs for technical and financial cooperation in order to assist them taking steps necessary to implement the TRIPS Agreement". To date, such information had been received from six Members, namely Sierra Leone, Uganda, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Tanzania and Senegal.
124. The Council's 2005 decision also provided that developed country Members were required to provide technical and financial cooperation in accordance with Article 67 in order to effectively address the needs identified by the least developed countries. Furthermore, the decision called for the WTO to enhance its cooperation with WIPO and other relevant international organizations with a view to making technical assistance and capacity building as effective and operational as possible.
125. At the Council's October 2011 meeting, Nigeria had made a suggestion that, if acceptable to it, the Secretariat would prepare a note aimed at indicating areas that had been implemented in those LDCs that had submitted their needs assessments, as well as the outstanding areas. Since another delegation had indicated that it needed further time for consideration, the Council had agreed to revert to that suggestion at the present meeting.
