India-EU dispute on drug seizure resolved

India today said it has resolved a dispute with European Union over seizure of Indian generic drugs by some European countries, and will soon withdraw a complaint filed before the WTO on the matter.

"EU has accepted our position and amended their rules. We have got understanding on this issue," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters here on the sidelines of the FICCI-Frauenhofer CEOs Roundtable.

Asked whether India will withdraw its complaint from the WTO, the Minister said: "Yes. We do not want to be in conflict. There has been realisation and we appreciate the steps which have been taken (amending the EU rules). They went to the extent of saying that they were misreading the concerned EU notification."

India had dragged the 27-nation European bloc to the WTO after several instances of drug seizure on the high seas of Europe, ostensibly on the ground that the consignments violated EU laws.

However, India insisted that the drugs, which were being shipped to Latin American and African countries, were off- patent and there was no violation of any international law.

At the behest of WTO, officials from the two sides held two rounds of mutual consultations to resolve the disputes which had left a bitter taste for the $20 billion Indian pharmaceutical industry.

Sharma said that India is very firm on the issue of its Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime and would not go beyond its domestic legislation.