MULTILATERAL SYSTEM OF NOTIFICATION AND
REGISTRATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS FOR WINES AND SPIRITS
Report by the Chairman, Ambassador Dacio Castillo (Honduras)
1. This report on the negotiations on the establishment of a
multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical
indications (GIs) for wines and spirits ("Register") in the Special
Session of the Council for TRIPS is submitted on my own responsibility and is
without prejudice to the positions of delegations and to the outcome of the
negotiations.
2. Since the beginning of my chairmanship, which coincides with the last
written report from the TRIPS Special Session issued by my predecessor in TN/IP/22
on 1 April 2014, there have been a number of efforts in the TRIPS Special
Session to respond to the Director-General's repeated calls for resumption of activities
across negotiation groups, and to reinvigorate substantive work on the GI
Register.
3. Informal consultations that I held with the most active delegations
on 2 October 2014 showed that Members' positions remained unchanged in
substance, and that the different views regarding the scope of the negotiating
mandate described in TN/IP/22 persisted. Moreover, in light of the overall
impasse regarding the implementation of the Bali decision on Trade Facilitation
at that time, there was no appetite then to resume work in the TRIPS Special
Session.
4. After the General Council Decision of 27 November 2014 to resume
work on the post-Bali Agenda, I held informal open-ended meetings on 12
December 2014 and on 23 February 2015. The purpose of these meetings was to
permit Members to share any new ideas on how progress could be made in the work
of the TRIPS Special Session, and on how it should be reflected in the
"clearly defined work programme on the remaining DDA issues" mandated
by ministers at the Bali Ministerial Meeting. While there was no indication of a
substantive shift of Members' traditional positions, delegations did agree at
the meeting in December to hold an informal information session on the
activities of the negotiating group in order to update delegations in the work
undertaken in the TRIPS Special Session up to 2011.
5. After further consultations in early 2015, the Council held such an
informal information session on 23 February 2015 in which the Secretariat
provided a detailed factual overview of past work in the TRIPS Special Session (RD/IP/5)
tracing the negotiations of a register for wine and spirit GIs from 1997 to
2011. This information sharing session was appreciated by Members as
comprehensive and useful, in particular for delegations who had not recently
been involved in the negotiations, for illuminating the amount of work that had
already been accomplished in the course of these negotiations so far. However,
although a number of Members continued to highlight the importance of this
negotiating issue for them, they remained hesitant to engage in the TRIPS
Special Session, citing lack of clarity on the overall negotiations picture
after Bali.
6. This situation remained unchanged in informal group consultations
which I held with the most active delegations on 11 June 2015. Although some
delegations were beginning to consider what a recalibration of negotiating
ambition could mean in the context of the TRIPS Special Session, the traditional
differences on the substance and the scope of the negotiations persisted. Other
delegations felt that TRIPS was not one of the areas where consensus outcomes
for the 10th Ministerial Conference could realistically be
achieved, and that delegations' efforts should therefore be focused on other
negotiating groups.
7. I briefed Members on the outcome of these negotiations in an
informal open-ended meeting on 30 July 2015. As regards the substance of negotiations or the
method of working of the TRIPS Special Session, no novel ideas were offered on
how to advance the work of this group.
8. In light of the above, it is my assessment that the situation has
not improved since my predecessors' report in April 2014. It seems that in the
preparations for the 10th Ministerial Conference substantive work on
the GI Register does not currently represent a priority for Members. Delegations'
willingness to engage substantively in the TRIPS Special Session remains at a
low point and significant efforts on the part of all delegations would be
necessary to overcome the persistent disagreements on the mandate and the substance
of these negotiations.
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