20. The Chairperson recalled that, at the tenth Ministerial Conference in December 2015, Ministers had directed the Council to continue its examination of the scope and modalities for complaints of the types provided for in Article XXIII 1(b) and 1(c) of the GATT 1994, and to make recommendations to the eleventh Ministerial Conference, scheduled to take place in December 2017. That instruction had mirrored the original mandate, contained in Article 64.3 of the TRIPS Agreement, which had set 1999 as the deadline for accomplishing this task. She noted that, so far, the Council had not yet been able to find a solution. She urged Members to provide more concrete ideas on how the Council could work towards fulfilling the mandate and on a recommendation for the eleventh Ministerial Conference, which would take place in merely six months. She noted that existing positions of Members were well documented, so there was no need to repeat them.
21. The representatives of Switzerland; India; Brazil; Argentina; the Plurinational State of Bolivia; South Africa; China; Ecuador; the United States; Japan; and, Sri Lanka took the floor.
22. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to this matter, at its next meeting.