August 27, 2003: Update on General Council

In a NGO Briefing this afternoon, Bernie Kuiten informed that the General Council was finalising the discussion on the draft Ministerial Text for Cancun, that was released to Members on Sunday late afternoon.

The of the Chair of the General Council, Perez del Castillo, after the intervention of some 45 members on the text - many of them clearly stating that they do not see the text as being the basis for negotiation in Cancun - he concluded that there was no agreement on the text and that further consultations will not lead a consensus based text in his opinion. Therefore he will send the present text as it is to Ministers in his own responsibility, together with a cover note. In this cover note, he will inlcude among others, that the text sent by him is a non-agreed text and that not all positions of members are reflected in the text. He also will inform Ministers about the different positions. Although he was not indicating in which way he will do this in the cover note.

He will consult with the Director General Supachai on this cover letter and told the members that he will garantuee that the letter will be objective. The cover note will be set up the next days and members will not have a possibility to see it or discuss it before it goes to Ministers.

This means that a text that certainly can be classified as a biased text and which has not been agreed by members here in Geneva will go to Cancun. Despite the declarations of many delegations that they do not consider this text as a basis for negotiation, it will become the basis, since no other text is there.

As regards TRIPS and Public Health, the final negotiations seem about to finish. There will be a further General Council Meeting tomorrow on TRIPS and Public Health.

Alexandra Strickner Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Geneva Office 15 Rue de Savoises 1205 Geneva Switzerland tel 41 22 789 0724 fax 41 22 789 0733