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Journalism of Courage
In defence of its intellectual property rights (IPR) regime, India on Thursday said its policies were WTO compliant even as the US refrained from labelling it as among the worst offenders in its report released on Wednesday.
India also expressed its willingness to discuss the concerns of the US at a bilateral forum while refusing to participate in the unilateral investigation carried out by Washington under its trade laws.
“We told them that India won’t subject itself to this investigation… They have rolled over the decision to fall… It appears a wise decision to not hasten as it would have affected trade, particularly at a time when we are at a political transition… A new government is going to come so they did not want to close the dialogue,” Rajeev Kher, commerce secretary, told reporters, while reacting to the US action.
On Wednesday, the US in its annual report, maintained the status quo and kept India under its priority watch list as against the priority foreign country tag being demanded by its industry, especially pharmaceuticals.
The Special 301 report released by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on IPR said the country faced “serious difficulties in attaining constructive engagement on issues of concern”. However, it added that the US will seek opportunities for meaningful, sustained, and effective engagement on IP-related matters with “the new government, including at senior levels” to improve IP protection and enforcement in India.
Kher said the investigation was unilateral as it was under the US Trade Act, adding that India is willing to discuss the matter at India-US Trade Policy Forum. He will be meeting deputy USTR Wendy Cutler in June to discuss the issue before taking it to the
Stressing that India’s IPR laws are fully complaint with Trade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights under the WTO, he said, “Each side has to recognise the constraints. US has to understand India’s situation. India is not in violation of any of its bilateral, multilateral agreements on any platform”.
The US has been repeatedly expressing concerns over the manufacture and distribution of pharmaceutical products bearing counterfeit trademarks, along with piracy. US lobbyists have been demanding that India be placed in the worst offenders list.
The issue has gained momentum ever since the Supreme Court in 2012 upheld the first compulsory licence given to domestic drugmaker Natco Pharma Ltd on a kidney and liver cancer drug, Nexavar, patented by Germany’s Bayer AG. This allowed a generic version to be made before the patent expired.
‘EU Alphonso ban premature’
New Delhi: Commerce secretary Rajeev Kher on Thursday said the European Union’s decision to ban import of vegetables and mangoes was “premature” and shocking and asked the 28-nation bloc to lift the restrictions.
He said that EU’s agency on sanitary and phyto-sanitary, and India’s National Plant Protection Organisation and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) were already discussing the quality issues. PTI
