44. The representative of Canada, providing his delegation's preliminary comments, said that, first, the structure of the EC proposal as outlined, especially in section III, "Opposition Procedure", and section V, "Legal Implications", appeared to contemplate a system in which an entity other than the national authority would make the determination of what was registerable and therefore protected. Did Members not agree that this would go beyond the obligations in the Agreement and potentially impinge on Members' sovereignty? Second, while referring to section V.2 of the proposal, he observed that the effect of the proposed procedure would be the creation of a title of protection which would imply a requirement for direct enforcement by the State and not merely be a private right, as was the case in Canada. The language in section V.1 of the proposal, that Members "will be responsible for taking the appropriate measures required by the TRIPS Agreement to effectively protect" registered geographical indications, was ambiguous. This section would further require that geographical indications in the registration system become "fully and indefinitely protected in all WTO Members", though adding a name to the register would be at the option of the Member notifying the geographical indication. Did Members not agree that this would go beyond the voluntary nature of a possible register under Article 23.4, which provision referred to "Members participating in the system", thereby indicating that the system would be a voluntary one? While the system should allow for a manifold request for protection to be made, Members should still individually determine whether a geographical indication was protectable according to their legislation. Finally, the introductory text of the EC proposal suggested "launching complementary discussions with the objective of extending the multilateral register's coverage to other goods". Referring to earlier comments on the scope of Article 23.4, his delegation wished to point out that Article 23.4 dealt only with wines, although it had now been expanded to include spirits, as a result of the Singapore Ministerial Conference.
