5.29. The representative of Nepal said that the debate on the TRIPS-CBD issue had been going on for years. In the view of his delegation, there was a need to work for ensuring mutually supportive and complementary relationship between the two instruments. The salient principles agreed in the CBD needed to be observed. The CBD underlined the sovereign right of states over their genetic resources as well as prior informed consent on the use of such resources and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their commercial use. Those were the principles that Members were working to ascertain in the negotiations on legal instrument(s) for the protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and folklore. The Council needed to recognize the developments that Members had agreed in other relevant forums. He reiterated his delegation's voice for the mandatory disclosure requirement of the origin of genetic resources in patent applications and supported international efforts to prevent misappropriation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. To that end, he said that Members needed to ensure that the user should disclose the country of origin of the genetic resource, evidence of prior informed consent from the country of origin and benefit-sharing agreements between users and the country of origin. He said that that issue was an important element of the Doha Development Agenda.
