19. The representative of Switzerland said that cooperation between the WTO and WIPO was indispensable and desired by both Organizations. He noted that preliminary and exploratory work had already started between the two Secretariats in this respect, which was useful for the establishment, eventually, of real and effective cooperation. Consideration of the matter by the Council should take place in three phases. The first concerned the identification of the needs of the Members of the WTO that had to be met in order to ensure an appropriate implementation of the Agreement. He suggested that the Chairman hold informal consultations to enable Members to express their views as to what they believed was needed to ensure an appropriate implementation of the Agreement and what they believed should be the priorities. The second phase should be the identification, by means of informal contacts through already-established channels, of what WIPO could, or would wish to, supply in answer to these identified needs. In the third phase it would be up to the TRIPS Council to assess the possibilities for cooperation and determine a framework within which cooperation with WIPO would be finally established. As to WIPO's attendance at meetings of the General Council, he preferred to await the outcome of the on-going consultations on observer status in the General Council.
