India seeks sound legal solution from EU on drug row

NEW DELHI: Renowned expert on global laws and India's legal consultant on its row with EU over drug seizure, Frederic M Abbott on Friday said New Delhi will not agree to any solution that does not address its concern on IPRs.

"I don't think India will accept the solution which does not firmly redress the problem which was perceived," Abbott said at a FICCI meet on 'Proposed ACTA - Issues and Implications'.

India and the 27-nation European Union bloc are locked in dispute, pending in the WTO over the seizure of Indian generic drugs by some EU members.

The country has dragged the EU to WTO complaining that several pharmaceutical consignments were seized by some EU members alleging violation of the European Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).

Abbott, professor of international law at Florida State University in the US, is assisting Commerce Ministry as a legal consultant.

He said India is demanding a "sound legal mechanism" for prevention of recurrence of incidents like seizure of its drug consignments.

"...any settlement that India might enter into with the EU would reflect a sound basis for that," Abbott said, adding the modalities for a settlement of the dispute were under discussion.

However, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma was assured by his EU counterpart Karel De Gucht that the European Union would amend a particular notification, which led to the dispute.

Regarding the proposed Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) between the US, EU, Japan and Canada, Abbott said that any move which would lead to situations like the drug seizure by the EU, would not be acceptable to India.

If ACTA comes into affect, it would pose a serious threat to the export of Indian a pharmaceuticals as it does not make a distinction between the off patent generic and counterfeit medicines.

Generics are off-patent drugs, an area in which India has established its global brand equity with about Rs 45,000 crore exports.