'India spending billions of dollars on IPR imports'

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SME Times News Bureau | 05 May, 2014
India is estimated to have spent a tidy sum of over USD 5 billion in the fiscal 2013-14 on imports of the intellectual property rights (IPRs) clearly negating concerns over India's IPR track record by the countries like the US which has been threatening trade sanctions against New Delhi by putting it under the Priority Watch List under an American trade law, an ASSOCHAM paper on IPR Imports has pointed out.

India's imports of IPRs in the quarter ended December, 2013 were over USD one billion while exports were negligible, as per the official data reviewed by the ASSOCHAM paper and the import bill on this count may well be around USD five billion in the FY 14.

"Whether it is in regard to merchandise trade or the intellectual property rights, India has been in full conformity with the World Trade Organisation IPR regime… This is borne out by the data. Our trade deficit is close to USD 200 billion clearly reflecting an open economy willing to accept large imports ….In regard to IPRs, we as a growing economy realises the importance of cutting-edge technology for improvement of our productivity and for which we have been paying. The figures speak for themselves," ASSOCHAM President Rana Kapoor said Sunday.

Given the fact that India is still a developing economy and almost one-third of its people are on subsistent level, the IPR expectations from it should be realistic. Besides, it has also to deal with the greed element of patent-holders who want ever-greening even after the patent period has lapsed.

The ASSOCHAM paper points out that the problem arises when the large economies like the US and the European Union start expecting growing markets like India not only to follow the multilateral rules under the WTO-mandated TRIPs (Trade –Related Intellectual Property Rights) but also be "WTO Plus".

"In case these countries want much more tightening of the IPR regime, they should press for the same in the multilateral forum like the WTO to which they are the major members. Why initiate their individual and unilateral probes and reports," the chamber said, adding that the Indian industry too is keen on a well-established IPR so that innovation can be promoted, even though there are differences between the developing and the developed world on affordability in key areas of interest to poor people, like pharmaceuticals.

Besides, India's patent regime is in full compliance with the multilateral dispensation and the Indian court’s judgements on issues like Compulsory Licensing for life saving drugs are completely in sync with these national and multilateral laws.

"The desire to see their trading partners do WTO Plus is becoming a problem even with regard to the European Union. It is precisely for this reason that the ambitious free trade agreement with the EU on trade and investment has been stuck. By such an obstinate attitude, some of the big economies are losing more opportunities than gaining," the ASSOCHAM paper noted.