India "Regrets" USTR's IPR Action

The Indian government has said the US Trade Representative's threat of legal action against India for its perceived failure to provide patent protection for pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals is "uncalled for," and it "regrets" India's placing again on the USTR's priority watch list under the Special 301 provisions of the US Trade Act (Marketletter May 13).

Acting USTR Charlene Barshefsky said India would be taken to the world trade court for its alleged failure to meet the World Trade Organization Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement.

The Marketletter's New Delhi correspondent reports that, from the US point of view, the move could not have been better timed because India is in the middle of electing a new government which could be installed around May 25. Earlier this month, no government official seemed to be responsible to say if India had a strategy to ward off the US threat, he notes; the Commerce Minister had resigned more than a month previously and the Commerce Secretary was at the UNCTAD annual conference in Johannesburg. However, a Commerce Ministry spokesman said India is committed to implementing TRIPs, and had introduced a bill in parliament to amend the 1970 Patent Act in order to meet these obligations.