Compte rendu ‒ Conseil des ADPIC ‒ Afficher les détails de l'intervention/la déclaration

Ambassador Mothusi Palai (Botswana)
7 NON-VIOLATION AND SITUATION COMPLAINTS
277. The delegation of Argentina would like to thank the United States for submitting document IP/C/W/599, which is still being examined by my country's authorities. 278. Without prejudice to more detailed comments at forthcoming meetings, we wish to underline two key issues. First, Argentina maintains the position expressed in document IP/C/W/385 and considers that the non violation and situation complaints identified in Article XXIII:1(b) and (c) of the GATT 1994 are not applicable to the TRIPS Agreement. Secondly, the expiry of the time period under Article 64.2 does not make non violation and situation complaints automatically applicable to the TRIPS Agreement. 279. As noted in document IP/C/W/385, Article 64.1 provides that Article XXIII of the GATT is applicable to the TRIPS Agreement except as otherwise provided in Articles 64.2 and 64.3. Notwithstanding the expiry of the time period under Article 64.2, non violation and situation complaints will only be applicable to the TRIPS Agreement in accordance with the procedures established in Article 64.3.
The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.
7.1. The Chairman recalled that, at the Ninth Session of the Ministerial Conference, Ministers had directed the TRIPS Council to continue its examination of the scope and modalities for complaints of the types provided for under subparagraphs 1(b) and 1(c) of Article XXIII of GATT 1994 and make recommendations to their next Session, which they decided to hold in 2015. It was agreed that, in the meantime, Members would not initiate such complaints under the TRIPS Agreement. In the consultations preceding the Council's October 2013 recommendation to extend the moratorium and the Decision taken at the Ministerial Conference in Bali, Members had already indicated readiness to engage, in early 2014, in intensified work on the matter with the intent of finding a way out of the current cycle of extending the moratorium from one Ministerial Conference to the next.

7.2. At its meeting in February 2014, the Council had had its first discussion of the matter after the Ministerial Conference. At the following meeting in June 2014, the United States had introduced a paper entitled "Non-Violation Complaints under the TRIPS Agreement" (document IP/C/W/599).

7.3. He particularly welcomed any thoughts on how the Council could best move forward on this matter in order to be in a position to agree in a timely manner on its recommendations specifically on scope and modalities to the next Ministerial Conference or, in the absence of such thoughts, how best to proceed with this issue.

7.4. The representatives of the United States; the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; Brazil; India; Cuba; Ecuador; Colombia; China; Japan; Argentina; Chile; the Plurinational State of Bolivia; the Republic of Korea; Chinese Taipei; Canada; New Zealand; Bangladesh; Egypt; Switzerland; Nigeria (on behalf of the African Group); Hong Kong, China; Nepal; and Indonesia took the floor.

7.5. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/77, IP/C/M/77/Add.1