60. The Chair recalled that, in order to carry out its decision to undertake preliminary work on issues relevant to the negotiations provided for in Article 23.4, the Council had agreed, at its meeting in February 1997, to an information gathering process on existing systems for the notification and registration of geographical indications. As a first step, some Members had submitted information on the national systems which they operated. These contributions, most of which had already been before the Council at its meeting in September 1997, could be found in document IP/C/W/76 and addenda. In addition, the Council had at that meeting requested the Secretariat to prepare a factual background note on existing international notification and registration systems for geographical indications relating to wines and spirits, according to an agreed outline. In response to this request, the Secretariat had circulated a note, which was to be found in document IP/C/W/85. Since this note had been circulated just prior to the Council's meeting in November, and only in English, she had suggested at that time the postponement of any discussion on the note to the present meeting. On the question of what the next step should be for carrying forward the work on this matter, now that information as requested by the Council in February 1997 had been made available, she said that informal consultations had indicated that there was as yet no clear picture of how Members wished to proceed on this matter, and that this was therefore an issue on which she suggested that the next Chairperson of the Council hold further consultations.
