11.1. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting in February 2003, the Council had adopted a decision on the "Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement". Paragraph 1 of the Decision provided that developed country Members shall submit annually reports on actions taken or planned in pursuance of their commitments under Article 66.2. To this end, they were to provide new detailed reports every third year and, in the intervening years, provide updates to their most recent reports. These reports were to be submitted prior to the last Council meeting scheduled for the year in question.
11.2. The fourth set of detailed annual reports under the Decision had been presented to the Council's meeting in November 2012 and updates had been provided in 2013 and 2014. At its last meeting in June, the Council had requested developed country Members to submit the fifth set of detailed annual reports for the present meeting. The Secretariat had issued on 19 June 2015 an airgram (WTO/AIR/IP/3) to remind developed country Members of this request.
11.3. To date, the Council had received the fifth set of detailed annual reports from the following developed country Members: Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, the United States, and Norway (IP/C/W/611 and addenda). The report submitted by the European Union and individual member States, namely Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, had been made available as a room document on documents online and would also be circulated as an addendum to document IP/C/W/611.
11.4. As regards the purpose and conduct of the review of this information, it should be recalled that paragraph 2 of the Decision on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement explained that the annual review meetings shall provide Members with an opportunity to pose questions in relation to the information submitted and request additional information; discuss the effectiveness of the incentives provided in promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least developed country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base; and consider any points relating to the operation of the reporting procedure established by the Decision. Since some of the information had been received only very recently, and most of it was available only in its original language, the Chairman proposed that an opportunity be provided at the Council's next meeting for Members to make further comments on the information submitted for this meeting and also to comment on any additional information that might yet be provided before that meeting.
11.5. He informed that, for the eighth year in a row, the WTO Secretariat would be organizing, at the request by LDC Members, a workshop on transfer of technology under Article 66.2 on 19 October 2015. It would bring together LDC and developed country experts to discuss this matter at a very practical level, building on the earlier workshops. He noted that in order to record the questions posed to reporting developed country Members on the occasion of the previous Workshop held on 27 October 2014, a compilation of these questions had been circulated to delegations by the WTO Secretariat on 6 July 2015.
11.6. The representatives of the European Union and New Zealand took the floor.
11.7. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to provide an opportunity for Members to make further comments on the information submitted at its next meeting.
