47. The Chairperson referred to the Symposium on "The Protection of Plant Varieties under Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement", which had been organized jointly by the Office of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the International Bureau of WIPO and the WTO Secretariat on Monday 15 February 1999 at the Centre International de Conférences in Geneva. The Symposium, which had been scheduled to coincide with the present meeting of the TRIPS Council, had been intended to provide a high-level forum for discussion and analysis of the challenges and opportunities for developing countries which were considering how to protect plant varieties in order to satisfy their obligations under the TRIPS Agreement, particularly in the light of the imminence of 1 January 2000.
