Compte rendu ‒ Conseil des ADPIC ‒ Afficher les détails de l'intervention/la déclaration

Ambassador István Major (Hungary)
World Trade Organization
E TECHNICAL COOPERATION
34. The representative of the Secretariat informed the Council that the WTO Secretariat had been working with its colleagues in WIPO on how to enhance their existing cooperation in the field of technical cooperation based on the Agreement entered into between the two Organizations on 1 January 1996. This was being done particularly in the light of the imminence of the end of the general transition period for developing countries on 1 January 2000 and the need to be as efficient as possible in making available technical cooperation in the intervening period so as to maximize the assistance that they were in a position to provide. The WTO Secretariat had agreed with WIPO on a joint initiative to this effect. Under this joint initiative, the Directors-General of the two Organizations, Dr. Kamil Idris of WIPO and Mr. Renato Ruggiero of the WTO, would shortly be sending communications to Ministers of each of the countries concerned. These letters would underscore the commitment of the two Organizations to do all within their capacity to provide, on request, technical assistance, draw attention to the key requirements of the TRIPS Agreement and contain a non exhaustive list of the forms of technical cooperation that could be provided. While this initiative and the enhanced planning and coordination between the two Organizations and with Members that it would entail was specifically geared to the needs of developing countries who had committed themselves to comply by the year 2000, he said that both the WTO Secretariat and WIPO wished to stress that it would not be implemented to the detriment of the assistance being provided to other countries, in particular least developed countries. He added that this initiative built on a substantial track record of cooperation between the two Organizations since 1996 and earlier in the field of technical cooperation, and was aimed at carrying it forward to a new level.
IP/C/M/19