49. The representative of WHO said that, first and foremost, he would like to thank the Members of the WTO, on behalf of the Director General of the WHO, for having granted observer status to the WHO in the TRIPS Council. This constituted an important step forward in the cooperation between the two Organizations. While it was the first time that the WHO was present at a meeting of the TRIPS Council, the cooperation between the two Organizations dated back many years. In this regard, and also to respond to the comments made by the delegations of the United States and the European Communities, the various activities set out in document IP/C/W/202 had been carried out in close cooperation with the WTO and WIPO. WHO had facilitated the participation of the Secretariats of these two Organizations in meetings in Indonesia and Thailand, for example, and the role played by WHO in this area was limited exclusively to giving the public health perspective in this overall process. Thus, the participating ministries of health had heard not only the strictly legal perspective.
