32. The Chairman said that in preparing the report he had preferred to be practical and progressive rather than to be merely passive. He felt that he had provided a balanced report, which he hoped would make a contribution to the future work of the Special Session. Despite the differing views on the subject, he had never felt that such differences were insurmountable and it was his view that ultimately convergence on the issues would be achieved. With regard to the continuing focus by some Members on the mandate calling for a register to facilitate the protection of GIs for wines and spirits, he reiterated that the key challenges remaining in this area were participation and legal effects. It had not yet been decided whether the register should be voluntary or mandatory. However, he felt that it should be possible to find a compromise between voluntary and mandatory by way of some meaningful criteria. Nevertheless, an even more difficult challenge remained in the legal effects or consequences of registration arising from the nature of intellectual property and the principle of territoriality. He said that there seemed to be acceptance among Members that the register information would be taken into account, and several delegations had underlined the importance of pursuing the question of how the system would operate in their respective territories. He believed that those discussions would eventually result in a compromise that could lead to a successful conclusion of the negotiations. He thanked all delegations for their constructive contributions and wished them well in the pursuit of the mandate.
