- US pharmaceutical companies and trade lobbies have accused India of discriminating against US firms and are pressurizing their government to include India under ‘Priority Foreign Country’ list for IPR on the grounds that Indian IPR regime to be non-compliant with International standards. In the past, India has said that it would drag the U.S. to WTO if America includes it in that list.
- In US, a company which denies adequate and effective protection of IPR or fair and equitable market access to the US persons relying on IPR protection is designated as a Priority Foreign Country. This may lead to impositions of sanctions on India by the US.
- These trade sanctions may include withdrawal of benefits under Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which gives reduced tariffs for Indian goods entering the U.S. markets. While this will impact exports of the MSME sectors to the US, other Indian exporters largely will largely remain unaffected.
- The Obama administration had been strongly criticising India’s investment climate and IPR laws, especially in the pharmaceuticals and solar sectors.
- They had opposed India’s move in 2012 to issue a compulsory licence to Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma to manufacture and sell ‘’Nexavar”, a cancer-treatment drug, at a price over 30 times lower than that charged by patent-holder Bayer Corporation. Pharma exports that year had surged by 10% of which US accounted for about 26%.
- Top Indian bureaucrats and ministers have touted this as an unfair move since India’s IPR regime is compliant with international norms and have scheduled a meeting to devise strategies to deal with these issues raised.
- Read at: http://www.thehindu.com/
todays-paper/tp-business/ crucial-meet-on-monday-to- discuss-ipr-issues/ article5927312.ece
Exams Perspective:
- Priority Foreign Country (PFC)
- Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
- Compulsory Licensing
- WTO
- Generalised System of Preferences (GSP)
- Natco Pharma