Ambassador Dacio Castillo (Honduras)

Bénin

11 CONTRIBUTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY TO FACILITATE THE TRANSFER OF ENVIRONMENTALLY RATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

355. This agenda item is as important as the others we have taken up during this session. I would like to underline the importance of the contribution of IP to the promotion of transfer of technology and innovation, and of the link to environmental issues, particularly climate change. For that reason, my delegation, following others who have spoken previously, would like to strongly recommend that the scientific community and researchers in the business world undertake and promote cooperation so as to seek useful approaches for the well-being and the health of the mankind as well as the balance and promotion of sustainable development. The examples that have been shared with us on this and other occasions should be disseminated. For this reason, the proposal that was submitted by the delegation of Ecuador is a useful basis on which we can work. 356. We would also like to indicate that the food for thought and the suggestions for possible solutions could be part of an effort to bring about mitigation adaptation in climate change, a beneficial partnership should be established and we would recommend, like other delegations, in particular Ecuador, that the Council continue to take up this item and that the WTO Secretariat, together with WIPO and the UNDP, work on pulling together the practices and experiences here and there in the international world, so that possible solutions and prospects can be gathered together in a compendium, so that in the near future this can help us to deal on a sustainable basis with this situation.

The Council took note of the statements made.

11.1. The Chairman said that this item had been put on the agenda at the written request by the delegation of Ecuador. He recalled that, at the Council's meeting in March 2013, Ecuador had briefly presented, under "Other Business", its submission entitled "Contribution of Intellectual Property for Facilitating the Transfer of Environmentally Rational Technology" (IP/C/W/585 in English and French, and IP/C/W/Rev.1 in Spanish). That document had been discussed at the Council's meeting of June 2013 under agenda item "Intellectual Property, Climate Change and Development" that had been put on the agenda at the request of Ecuador. At Ecuador's request, the Council had continued this discussion at its meeting in October.

11.2. The representatives of Ecuador, Cuba, Chile, El Salvador, the European Union, India, Japan, Switzerland, the United States, China, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, and Benin took the floor under this agenda item.

11.3. The Council took note of the statements made.

IP/C/M/75, IP/C/M/75/Add.1