New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) India and the European Union have arrived at an interim settlement on how to prevent the seizure of generic drugs.
‘After several rounds of discussions, India and EU reached an understanding which contains the principles to guide border enforcement of intellectual property in the EU,’ India’s commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.
The EU has proposed a settlement of the dispute by confirming the detailed principles to guide border enforcement of intellectual property rights, it said.
In return, the EU has sought an assurance that India would refrain from further steps in the ongoing dispute.
Jean-Luc Demarty, Director General of European Commission, proposed the settlement in a letter to Indian Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar.
India initiated dispute settlement consultations in May 2010 at the World Trade Organisation on the issue of detention of Indian generic medicines while in transit through the European countries.
The dispute was triggered by the repeated instances of detentions/seizure at EU ports, particularly in the Netherlands, of Indian generic drugs destined for export to Latin American and other countries.
The detentions were made by invoking the European Commission’s regulation which contains customs procedures for taking action against goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights.
