India-EU dispute on drug seizure resolved

Prakash Chawla
Berlin, Oct 7 (PTI) India on Thursday said it has
resolved a dispute with European Union over seizure of Indian
generic drugs by some European countries, and will soon
withdraw a complaint filed before the World Trade Organisation
on the matter.
"EU has accepted our position and amended their rules. We
have got understanding on this issue," India's Commerce and
Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters here on the
sidelines of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (FICCI)-Frauenhofer CEOs Roundtable.
Asked whether India will withdraw its complaint from the
World Trade Organisation, the Minister said: "Yes. We do not
want to be in conflict. There has been realisation and we
appreciate the steps which have been taken (amending the EU
rules). They went to the extent of saying that they were
misreading the concerned EU notification."
India had dragged the 27-nation European bloc to the WTO
after several instances of drug seizure on the high seas of
Europe, ostensibly on the ground that the consignments
violated EU laws.
However, India insisted that the drugs, which were being
shipped to Latin American and African countries, were off-
patent and there was no violation of any international law.
At the behest of WTO, officials from the two sides held
two rounds of mutual consultations to resolve the disputes
which had left a bitter taste for the USD 20 billion Indian
pharmaceutical industry.
Sharma said that India is very firm on the issue of its
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime and would not go
beyond its domestic legislation. PTI PC
EKA


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