11. The Chairman said that notifications had been received from 22 Members so far. Since the Council's meeting of 22 February 1996, new or revised notifications had been received from Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Liechtenstein, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Venezuela. Most of these notifications had already been circulated in the IP/N/4/- series of documents but some were still being processed. He recalled that the Council had agreed that, since there were some significant differences in relation to the notifications under Article 4(d), the Chairman should consult informally with a view to finding a mutually satisfactory way of handling this matter.
12. He said that, in order to facilitate these informal consultations, he had circulated an informal background note prepared by the Secretariat on the drafting history of Article 4 and identifying a number of factors that might be relevant to consideration as to whether a notification should be made under sub-paragraph (d). In the informal consultations that he had held, this note had been welcomed as a useful aid to clarification of and reflection on the matter, and some delegations had indicated that they would wish to have a further look at the notifications they had made in the light of it.
