58. Ambassador Mohamed Ennaceur of Tunisia said that the meeting of the WIPO Working Group that he had chaired on 12 May 1995 had been attended by the Chairman of the Council for TRIPS and representatives of the WTO Secretariat. In summarizing the discussion that had taken place at the meeting, he said that a consensus had emerged from the debate that members of WIPO shared the view of WTO Members regarding the need for cooperation between the two Organizations. However, as to the contents and modalities for such cooperation, no consensus had been reached yet in the Working Group. In respect of the contents of such cooperation, reference should be made to the possible establishment of a common register for laws and regulations under Article 63.2 of the TRIPS Agreement, which had been addressed in a document that had been submitted to the Working Group by the Director General of WIPO. Further, several delegations at the meeting had referred to the area of technical cooperation. WIPO already had a programme for technical cooperation and, as announced by the Director General of WIPO at the meeting, the studies regarding the implications of the TRIPS Agreement for the conventions administered by WIPO, as called for by the General Assembly of WIPO at its 1994 Session, were about to be accomplished and would be presented to the General Assembly in the context of its next Session in the autumn of 1995. Furthermore, a programme for technical assistance in the area of intellectual property for African countries was well under way in WIPO. WIPO was thus continuing its technical assistance programmes. It was possible to have cooperation between WIPO and the WTO in the context of technical assistance, but the WTO had to specify first in what areas such cooperation was desirable. Regarding the modalities of cooperation between the two Organizations, mention had been made at both the first and the second meeting of the Working Group, on 8 February and 12 May 1995 respectively, of the possibility of setting up an informal Consultation Group on all matters concerning possible cooperation between WIPO and the WTO. This possibility remained open in the context of both WIPO and the WTO. Several delegations had supported the idea for such a Consultation Group at the meeting on 12 May. Other delegations had indicated, however, that they were not yet ready to take a decision on this and did not consider the matter, at this stage, as an urgent issue. Furthermore, contacts between the Secretariats of the two Organizations had been encouraged by all. According to certain member States of WIPO, such contacts should take place with the assistance of representatives of member States of WIPO, without the presence of these delegations implying a mandate to negotiate; contacts between WIPO and the WTO had to remain informal. Member States of WIPO would consult on who should accompany the International Bureau in its future contacts with the WTO.
