The following WTO airgram WTO/AIR/3892/REV.1 contains the agenda for the upcoming WTO Council for TRIPS meeting to be held in Geneva from Tuesday, 28 February 2012 to Wednesday, 29 February 2012. Paragraph 2 and agenda items D, E, F, J, M and N will be of interest to readers. It should be noted that in the original document, the text is capitalized.
The Dominican Republic made a written request to the WTO secretariat that an additional agenda item be added (“M) on “Australia: Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011 and its compatibility with the TRIPS Agreement”.
Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States have made another written request for an additional item (“N”) on “IP Enforcement Trends”.
While WTO members debate ACTA in Geneva, the European Parliament Committee for International Trade’s (INTA) will hold a hearing on ACTA on 29 February 2012.
According to the EU Parliament website, INTA is the
committee which will make a formal recommendation to the full house on whether or not to approve ACTA. Parliament cannot amend the agreement, but only approve or reject it. If it does not give its consent, then the agreement falls as far as the EU is concerned.Under EU Treaty articles 207 and 218, most international agreements need Parliament’s consent to enter into force. Equally, all EU countries need to ratify them.
On 1 March 2012, the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union: Policy Department and Committee on International Trade/European Parliament will hold a workshop on ACTA in Brussels featuring the following speakers: Mr Karel De Gucht, EU Commissioner for Trade, Dr Michael GEIST, University of OttawaProf. Christophe GEIGER, CEIPI, University of Strasbourg, Prof. Anselm Kamperman Sanders, Maastricht University, Prof. Dalindyebo Shabalala, Maastricht University, Dr Olivier Vrins, partner, Altius Lawyers, Mr Rupert Schlegelmilch, EC, Director, DG TRADE (B), Dr Meir Pugatch, University of Haifa, Mr David MARTIN (INTA Rapporteur) and Prof. Vital MOREIRA (INTA Chairman). In addition, a “Draft motion for a resolution requesting an opinion from the ECJ on the compatibility of ACTA with the Treaties” is under consideration at the European Parliament.
With the increased scrutiny of ACTA at the European Parliament this week, the discussions of ACTA at the TRIPS Council should provide a useful barometer of DG Trade’s talking points on ACTA, particularly, in light of the recent citizens’ protests which have spurred on the governments of Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, and the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia to reconsider their ratification of the Agreement. The deliberations on ACTA at the TRIPS Council, WTO’s body in charge of administering the TRIPS Agreement, will provide an important litmus test of how ACTA parties respond to citizens’ and WTO members’ concerns over ACTA’s potential implications on internet freedom and public health.
Here below is the WTO airgram in full.
WTO/AIR/3892/rev.1 17 february 2012
SUBJECT: Council for TRIPS
1. The next meeting of the Council For TRIPS Will Be Held in the Centre William Rappard on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 starting at 10
A.N. and will continue on Wednesday, 29 February as necessary.
2. The Dominican Republic has made a written request to add an additional item to the agenda. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States have made another written request for an additional item. following these requests, the following items are now proposed for the agenda (the new proposals are listed as items M and N, respectively).
3. The following items are proposed for the agenda:
a. Election of the chairperson
b. Notifications under provisions of the agreement
c. Reviews of national implementing legislation
d. Review of the provisions of Article 27.3(b)
e. Relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity
f. Protection of traditional knowledge and folklore
g. Non-violation and situation complaints
h. review of the implementation of the trips agreement under article 71.1
i. Review of the application of the provisions of the sections on geographical indications under Article 24.2
j. Follow-up to the ninth annual review under paragraph 2 of the decision on the implementation of article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement
k. Technical cooperation and capacity-building
l. Letter from the chair of the General Council concerning ways to improve the timeliness and completeness of notifications and other information flows
m. Australia: tobacco plain packaging bill 2011 and its compatibility with the TRIPS Agreement
n. IP enforcement trends
o. Information on relevant developments elsewhere in the WTO
p. Observer status for international intergovernmental organizations
q. Other Business
4. It is recalled that paragraph 19 of the Doha ministerial declaration provides that the council, in undertaking the work provided for in that paragraph, shall be guided by the objectives and principles set out in articles 7 and 8 of the TRIPS Agreement and shall take fully into account the development dimension.
5. Any member wishing an additional item to be placed on the proposed agenda is invited to inform the secretariat of this sufficiently in advance so that a revised airgram can be issued ten calendar days prior to the meeting.
6. Members of the WTO, other governments with observer status and international organizations with observer status are requested to inform the secretariat of the names of their representatives as soon as possible.Pascal Lamy