BusinessEurope pushes for stronger intellectual property terms in FTA

Fears of tough intellectual property (IP) provisions in India’s free trade agreement (FTA) with EU are only getting stronger.

Recently, BusinessEurope, an alliance of European industry confederations has pressed for greater emphasis on IP issues in the EU’s trade relations with developing countries.

Tough IP could, most importantly, have a negative impact on access to medicines for Indian patients, and those who rely on drugs from India, as well as for India’s farming community.

BusinessEurope has said that it is appropriate to make demands of developing countries in IP, as they have signed the world trade organization’s (WTO) trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (Trips) agreement, wherein they can raise their IP protection standards.

This comes at a time when India is gung-ho about signing a FTA with EU by 2010.

If tough IP measures such as the ones being discussed in the FTA with EU are acceded to, Indian farmers could turn pawns of MNCs engaged in crop research, with their freedom of sharing, exchanging, selling seeds to other farmers getting crushed.

Moreover, stricter IP would also delay early entry of low cost generic medicines into the market, and extend the patent term of innovator drugs of MNC companies beyond the current 20 years, thereby making cheap medicines inaccessible to millions of patients.

The European Commission is representing the private interests of its pharma companies in pushing for strong IP through the FTAs, says Loon Gangte, president, Delhi Network of Positive People.

Shalini Bhutani, regional programme office, Asia, GRAIN, a non-profit group working to support small farmers says acceding to tougher IP would amount to signing away seed and food sovereignty.

According to BK Keayla, convenor, National Working Group on Patent Laws, bilateral trade should not incorporate IP as it implies monopoly, which does not benefit larger sections of the population. “We already have Trips. Anything above that will not be fine for our population.”

The demands by BusinessEurope also don’t tally with the EU’s resolution on Trips and access to medicines, which states that policies should support the developing countries that use flexibilities in Trips to provide essential medicines at affordable prices.

According to Barun S Mitra, director, Liberty Institute, an independent think tank, FTAs are notoriously prone to be captured by vested interests. “Negotiating with EU will be very difficult.

There are businesses, environmental interests to deal with. As EU is a big importer from India, they might use the bilateral platform to bring more pressure on India,” says Mitra, adding that in FTA, unlike the WTO negotiations, India will have to fend for itself.