prasad1
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The man who has been appointed the chief economic adviser to the government of India, Arvind Subramanian, was until recently urging the US to initiate disputes against India before the World Trade Organization.
He also sought changes in provisions within Indian patent law aimed at preventing frivolous patenting and preventing pharmaceutical companies from getting extensions on patents by tweaking existing drugs and passing them off as innovations.
Subramanian was a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and at the Center for Global Development. As recently as March this year, in a written testimony submitted during the process of review by the US of intellectual property (IP) protection of various countries including India, Subramanian wrote, "If India does not address the problems created by Section 3(d) of the patent legislation or by compulsory licensing for nonworking, the United States should consider initiating WTO disputes against India."
He justified this approach on the ground that India took its WTO obligations seriously and had a good track record of implementing WTO dispute settlement rulings. He added that for the US, "the virtue of using WTO dispute settlement was that it would be diplomatically and politically less confrontational than unilateral and bilateral actions".
Subramanian was reiterating a position he had taken in an earlier testimony to the US Congress in March last year.
Every year the US brings out a report, under section 301 of its Trade Act, which categorizes countries according to their level of intellectual property protection. If a country's protection level is deemed inadequate, it is categorized as a priority foreign country (PFC), a situation that could lead to US trade sanctions if not resolved within 6 months.
Modi?s chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian had opposed India on IPR till recently - The Times of India
Where is his loyalty?
He also sought changes in provisions within Indian patent law aimed at preventing frivolous patenting and preventing pharmaceutical companies from getting extensions on patents by tweaking existing drugs and passing them off as innovations.
Subramanian was a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and at the Center for Global Development. As recently as March this year, in a written testimony submitted during the process of review by the US of intellectual property (IP) protection of various countries including India, Subramanian wrote, "If India does not address the problems created by Section 3(d) of the patent legislation or by compulsory licensing for nonworking, the United States should consider initiating WTO disputes against India."
He justified this approach on the ground that India took its WTO obligations seriously and had a good track record of implementing WTO dispute settlement rulings. He added that for the US, "the virtue of using WTO dispute settlement was that it would be diplomatically and politically less confrontational than unilateral and bilateral actions".
Subramanian was reiterating a position he had taken in an earlier testimony to the US Congress in March last year.
Every year the US brings out a report, under section 301 of its Trade Act, which categorizes countries according to their level of intellectual property protection. If a country's protection level is deemed inadequate, it is categorized as a priority foreign country (PFC), a situation that could lead to US trade sanctions if not resolved within 6 months.
Modi?s chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian had opposed India on IPR till recently - The Times of India
Where is his loyalty?
