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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:TECHNICAL COOPERATION — KEY DOCUMENTS

II. The Doha Development Agenda

The Doha Work Programme, launched in 2001, comprises two separate sets of issues: firstly, negotiations in several areas, including agriculture, services, and intellectual property; and secondly, work outside the scope of the negotiations, including on subjects such as trade, debt and finance, and trade and transfer of technology.  In all, the DDA covers about 20 areas of trade and work is ongoing in all of these areas.

Intellectual property negotiations focus on the establishment of a multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical indications for wines and spirits. The list of outstanding implementation issues in the TRIPS area includes examining, inter alia, the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore, as well as the issue of the extension to other products of the additional protection granted to wines and spirits.

The principal elements of the Doha Work Programme are contained in the following key documents:

  • Doha Ministerial Declaration — Adopted on 14 November 2001 (WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1)
  • Compilation of Outstanding Implementation Issues Raised by Members (JOB(01)/152/Rev.1)
  • Doha Work Programme — Decision Adopted by the General Council on 1 August 2004 (WT/L/579)
  • Doha Work Programme — Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration — Adopted on 18 December 2005 (WT/MIN(05)/DEC)
  • Bali Ministerial Declaration — adopted on 7 December 2013 (WT/MIN(13)/DEC)