>> UNITED STATES: Thank you, Mr. Chair. The United States would like to thank GRULAC for its paper which raises a number of new and significant issues. The United States believes it is important to be able to discuss a range of timely and substantive issues, copyright issues at WIPO. We have in the past suggested that it could be valuable to identify new topics for the SCCR without prejudice to the existing agenda items. In our view the main impediment to doing so is the perception that any SCCR discussions will inevitably be the predicate for norm setting. This makes it difficult for Delegates to be more willing to move forward with topics and prevents the ability to engage in productive and enlighten exchanges of ideas and experiences. If we could reach agreement that we are not engaged in a process will lead to Treaty proposals or other norm setting but rather that the goal is to enhance our common understanding we believe it would be possible to achieve consensus within the SCCR to take up new topics. A few issues might, selected from the many described in the GRULAC paper that could be the basis of are productive discussions at a future meetings. Issues other than those in the paper may also be fruitful to pursue. We would emphasize however that in our view a focus on policy issues rather than marketplace practices would be more appropriate for this Committee. We also note that several of the topics in the GRULAC paper have the been the subject of considerable attention in the United States and we would be pleased to share the results of our analyses and studies. (Attention) the United States is prepared to consult further in the coming months and to propose a set of potential topics for future discussion at the next SCCR. Thank you, Chair.
>> CHAIR: Thank you very much to the Distinguished Delegate from U.S. for her clarity and her constructive approach in trying to look forward to find a way to — to continue our discussions that might start with this invitation contained in this document we are commenting.