At a meeting of the WTO Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on 1-2 December, Nigeria submitted a proposal on behalf of the African Group - which includes all African WTO Members - for converting the waiver provided for in a 30 August 2003 Decision on pharmaceutical patents into a formal amendment of the TRIPS agreement. The '30 August Decision' by the General Council spells out the circumstances under which countries without pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity can import generic versions of drugs still under patent.The Decision temporarily waives Members' obligations under TRIPS Article 31(f) by allowing them to export pharmaceuticals produced under compulsory licence, albeit subject to a large number of conditions in both the exporting and importing country.