21. The representative of Cuba recalled, in December 1998, the delegation of Cuba had presented to the Council, under Article 63.3 of the TRIPS Agreement, a request for information from the United States government on the amendments that it had made to the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for the fiscal year 1999, in particular to Article 211, sub paragraphs a), b), c) and d), as well as its compatibility and relevance to the TRIPS Agreement. To date, his delegation had not received any satisfactory response to the request. It had only received a list of legal texts which dealt with the matter, but which were easily accessible through other means and which did not actually afford any extra clarity on the grounds for the action of the United States legislative body which had enacted Section 211. It could, therefore, not be considered to be in compliance with Article 63.3, which stipulated that Members were bound to be informed, in sufficient detail, of the matter raised. Cuba considered that the basic objective of the provision was to illustrate and show good faith in compliance with the TRIPS Agreement and the WTO Agreement by Members in their relations with other Members, and this had not been complied with. Cuba was following closely and with interest the consultations which were taking place within the framework of the DSU between the European Communities and the United States and they were awaiting the outcome of the process. In this connection his delegation reserved the right to take other action within the WTO framework, should the results of the consultations not respect the legitimate rights that Cuba had in this regard. Lastly, he thanked all those delegations which had, in the course of the last three meetings of the Council, afforded their support to Cuba and he reiterated his trust in the strict and unconditional observance of the principles of the multilateral trading system, the rules of which had to be implemented without discrimination, fairly and transparently.
