Several organisations and experts working in the health sector across the country have expressed concern on the Joint Working Group on Intellectual Property (IP) set up between India and the United States.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NGOs and experts urged the Prime Minister to approach the IP issue with a “holistic perspective that it warrants, rather than the official approach being subsumed by the relatively narrow confines of trade and economic policy”. The letter also requests the Prime Minister “to take a personal interest in this important matter”, as IP affects basic needs such as food, medicine and education, etc. which are not trade issues.
The letter cautions that “bilateralism in the area of IP must be approached with an extremely high degree of caution”, particularly when it comes to USA. The US administration and its trade negotiators are notorious for demanding IP standards that go well beyond the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s IP agreement, namely TRIPS.
“The US demands clearly go beyond what the World Trade Organisation (WTO) asks for from its member countries. Several regional trade agreements or bilateral investment treaties either signed by or being negotiated by the US bear evidence to this trend. Any bilateral negotiation on IP between India and the US would definitely witness demands on India to provide for higher standards of IP protection that are not required of us by the WTO’s IP agreement TRIPS”, the letter says.
It is important to note that the new bilateral arrangement between the US and India is being undertaken against the backdrop of heightened US political interest in India’s IP regime, which has been spurred on by its business interests. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology MNCs backed by the US are the key actors on that front. India has earned phenomenal interest world over for its generic medicines a reputation that must be preserved, the letter says.
The US should not decide our IP policies when it is a question of national interest and international solidarity. There have been intensified pressures on India; US putting India on its 2014 ‘Priority Watch List’ and the current Out-of-Cycle Review (OCR) of India’s IP regime being conducted by the US are recent examples of this. We fully support the position taken by Indian authorities to not go along with any such unilateral measures by the US Government. We insist that this stance of the Government of India be relentlessly maintained, the NGOs and experts in the letter said.
Source:Pharmabiz
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the NGOs and experts urged the Prime Minister to approach the IP issue with a “holistic perspective that it warrants, rather than the official approach being subsumed by the relatively narrow confines of trade and economic policy”. The letter also requests the Prime Minister “to take a personal interest in this important matter”, as IP affects basic needs such as food, medicine and education, etc. which are not trade issues.
The letter cautions that “bilateralism in the area of IP must be approached with an extremely high degree of caution”, particularly when it comes to USA. The US administration and its trade negotiators are notorious for demanding IP standards that go well beyond the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s IP agreement, namely TRIPS.
“The US demands clearly go beyond what the World Trade Organisation (WTO) asks for from its member countries. Several regional trade agreements or bilateral investment treaties either signed by or being negotiated by the US bear evidence to this trend. Any bilateral negotiation on IP between India and the US would definitely witness demands on India to provide for higher standards of IP protection that are not required of us by the WTO’s IP agreement TRIPS”, the letter says.
It is important to note that the new bilateral arrangement between the US and India is being undertaken against the backdrop of heightened US political interest in India’s IP regime, which has been spurred on by its business interests. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology MNCs backed by the US are the key actors on that front. India has earned phenomenal interest world over for its generic medicines a reputation that must be preserved, the letter says.
The US should not decide our IP policies when it is a question of national interest and international solidarity. There have been intensified pressures on India; US putting India on its 2014 ‘Priority Watch List’ and the current Out-of-Cycle Review (OCR) of India’s IP regime being conducted by the US are recent examples of this. We fully support the position taken by Indian authorities to not go along with any such unilateral measures by the US Government. We insist that this stance of the Government of India be relentlessly maintained, the NGOs and experts in the letter said.
Source:Pharmabiz
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