62. The representative of the FAO said that document IP/C/W/35/Add.4 covered several aspects of technical cooperation made available by the FAO. The document referred to technical assistance itself as well as to assistance concerning the preparation of national legislation and included a series of examples of the projects in which the FAO had been involved in the past year or which the FAO was currently supporting or discussing. The document gave information on the different policy aspects followed by the FAO and which had been developed by its member states insofar as they related to some of the discussions held in the context of the TRIPS Agreement. He referred, in particular, to the negotiations being held in the intergovernmental Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (i.e. the former intergovernmental Commission on Plant Genetic Resources), which had more than 150 country Members and was discussing an international agreement on access to genetic resources for food and agriculture; aspects concerning biological diversity insofar as it related to agriculture; and the recognition of the rights of farmers in that context, i.e. of those who provided the necessary primary commodities to enable the development of products derived from biotechnology. Finally, the document also covered a worldwide plan agreed at a meeting in Leipzig, Germany, earlier this year, attended by more than 150 countries; many of the programmes agreed at that meeting covered technical assistance in the area of TRIPS.
