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The consecutive seizures of drugs exported from India to Nigeria and Brazil in transit by the Dutch authorities may compel India to file an official case against the European Union (EU) urging WTO to devise such EU customs regulations that conform to the internationally accepted norms.
The shipments included anti-HIV and anti-Malarial drugs that are generic in India, and were confiscated in the beginning of this year at Dutch ports after European companies that hold patents for those drugs approached customs authorities averring they were fake.
An official from the commerce department said, “It’s illegal as it not only violated the international intellectual property agreement (Trips), but was also against the GATT provisions on transit”.
The official told GATT, which is now known as WTO, had laid down specific rules for goods in transit. According to rules, such confiscations are not allowed. In addition, the drugs that were being sent overseas were generic or off-patent in India and it had all the rights to sell it to some other nation under the Trips provisions.
The official informed, “India has decided to ask the WTO to set up a panel for settling this dispute. We want the EU to bring its customs regulations in line with international regulations. The panel is likely to be set up soon”.
Catherine Ashton, the EU trade commissioner, in a discussion with Anand Sharma, the Indian commerce and industry minister, had promised that the issue of confiscation would be taken into account. However, MS Ashton did not clearly mention about the plans to deal with the issue and whether the customs regulations would be modified. She had visited India the previous month.
The official told, “We cannot work on verbal assurances. When consignments are confiscated, it brings disrepute and also leads to delays and losses. We cannot allow this to continue”. The Economic Times
October 5, 2009
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