HONG KONG, Dec 15: Speakers at a seminar urged the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Council to consider the proposals of the developing countries in the review process.

They were addressing a seminar here on Thursday at the sideline of the ministerial conference, jointly organized by SAWTEE Nepal, SDPI Pakistan, CUTS India, and BELA Bangladesh. The council is reviewing the TRIPS agreement on the eve of the conference.

They said that the review of Article 27.3(b) of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) should be completed on priority basis and TRIPs council should ensure that this review results in harmonizing TRIPs with Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as per para 19 of Doha Declaration.

The UNDP representative, Ratnakar Adhikari, pointed out that there was a 180 degree difference between the position of major developing countries and those of EU and the US. Developing countries are demanding for disclosure of origin, access and benefit sharing mechanism and information prior to the consent within the TRIPs, whereas the USA and EU want to keep these things outside the mandate of WTO, he added.