New Delhi, April 19 (KNN) In order to address the concerns raised by the US on the India's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime particularly in the pharmaceuticals and other areas like solar energy, a crucial meeting has been called on Monday by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth here.
Seth has called a meeting of top bureaucrats to discuss the strategies to deal with the IPR issues being raised by the US of late.
The US industry, particularly, from the pharmaceuticals sector, and trade lobbies are putting pressure on their government to put India under the ‘Priority Foreign Country’ list for IPR, which may lead to trade sanctions on Indian firms by America.
US has been threatening to include India in the ‘Priority Foreign Country’ list for IPR of the US Trade Act — a classification given to those that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights or fair and equitable market access to the US persons relying on IPR protection.
Indian Ambassador to US S Jaishankar has suggested that the Indian government should engage with US pharma companies to deliberate on the matter. American companies are alleging that the Indian IPR regime is not compliant with international norms, and discriminates U.S. firms.
If the US considers withdrawing the benefits under the scheme of Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which provides reduced tariffs for Indian goods entering the US markets, it might impact exports of the MSME sector.
India exports sizeable portion of its pharmaceutical shipments to the US. In the recent past, several Indian companies have run into the problem of IPR issues in the US.
Earlier, India had also said that it would drag the US to WTO if America includes it in that list.