US resists pressure from business lobby Big Pharma, avoids escalating trade dispute with India

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has resisted pressure from the American domestic business lobby, notably Big Pharma, and avoided escalating a simmering trade dispute with New Delhi. It has retained India on the Priority Watch List in 2014 instead of naming it as a Priority Foreign Country as demanded by the western drug industry.

"In making this determination, the United States recognizes ... the critical role that meaningful, constructive, and effective engagement between India and the United States should play in resolving concerns," the United States Trade Representatives annual " Super 301" report released here on Wednesday said, while mollifying US pressure groups by announcing an out-of-cycle review of India in fall this year.

Super 301 refers to a section of the US Trade Act of 1974 that authorizes the American President to take punitive action against foreign governments that violate international trade agreements or discriminate against or restrict US commerce. American business lobbies have been up in arms over the past several months, alleging that New Delhi is guilty on both counts, mainly on account of widely different interpretations between their commercial interests and profiteering from life-saving drugs, and India's determination to lower the cost of such medicines through broader interpretation by way of domestic patent law.