Congress Asks India to Stop Discriminating Against US IP
26 July 2013
The United States House of Representative’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade accused India of threatening the longstanding trading partnership between the two countries through emerging discriminatory trade practices and other non-tariff barriers such as localization requirements and policies that violate internationally accepted intellectual property standards. The charges came at a hearing titled “A Tangle of Trade Barriers: How India’s Industrial Policy is Hurting US Companies.”
The two countries have had a solid trade relationship, with India ranking as the 13th largest trading partner with the US in 2011, but the status is deteriorating due to some discriminatory trade practices and other non-tariff barriers including localization requirements and policies that violate global IP standards.
“Guided by their national manufacturing policy, India has begun engaging in a growing pattern of unfair and discriminatory trade practices which are directly harming US companies in a wide variety of sectors — especially pharmaceuticals, energy technologies, and information and communications technology,” said Rep. Lee Terry, the Nebraska Republican who chaired the meeting. “This committee is deeply concerned about the long-term effects these actions may have on US companies and workers.”
Many IP-related policies adopted by the Indian government over the past two years have raised concerns about the future of the US-India trade relationship.
“In 2010, the then-president of India declared the next 10 years to be India’s ‘Decade of Innovation,’” said one of the hearing’s witnesses, Mark Elliot, executive vice president of Global IP Centre at the US Chamber of Commerce. “Unfortunately, India’s policies are inconsistent with their former president’s statement. Over the last 18 months, particular policy, regulatory, and legal decisions have deteriorated their IP system, making India an outlier in the international community.”
Pfizer chief intellectual property officer Roy Waldron said that India’s unfair practices have undermined Pfizer’s ability to innovate, create jobs and provide faster access to life-saving medicines, claiming that India’s patent abuse has made Pfizer unable to recoup research and development costs, which often exceed US$1 billion.
“Since early 2012, India’s policies and actions have undermined patent rights for at least nine innovative medicines. Many of these medicines have received patent protection in most countries across the world, suggesting that India is an outlier in recognizing and enforcing patents,” Waldron said. “This is not only creating significant uncertainty in the market but it also undermines our ability to compete fairly in India, and our willingness to invest there.”
