Indian drug firms wary of global customs norms

[Metropolitanjury]

The World Customs Organisation (WCO), the intergovernmental body that aims at developing global standards for Customs departments, is planning to recommend stringent norms for enforcing the intellectual property rights of export consignments. However, Indian researchers have expressed concern over the move which goes beyond the minimum standards prescribed under the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as TRIPS mandates such standards only for "imports" of goods and leaves stringent provisions for "exports" optional.

The WCO proposals, if implemented, could empower the customs authorities to seize any export or goods in transit consignments on complaints of suspected IP violation. This could prove to be a powerful non-tariff barrier for industries like pharmaceuticals in the developing countries, warn Indian researchers.

The working draft of the proposal — Standards Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) — was prepared after the WCO observed that "only by granting certain powers and measures that go beyond the minimum requirement set forth in the TRIPS agreement, governments can provide an effective and efficient level of IPR protection and enforcement at their borders".

"The ‘Provisional Global Customs Standards' to counter IPR violations go much beyond the definition of ‘counterfeits' discussed by the World Health Assembly (WHA) last week in Geneva. It talks of its own ‘Model IPR Legislation' for enforcement of IPRs and advocates granting powers and measures to the customs that go beyond the minimum requirements set forth in the TRIPS Agreement," says D G Shah, secretary general, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA). "This, unless properly addressed, could be yet one more hurdle for access to medicines. It is a matter of concern not only for the national pharmaceutical industry, but also for the Government of India and the civil society as its potential to create barrier is even greater than the TRIPS Agreement," he added.

According to Nirmalya Syam, a researcher with the Delhi-based Centre for Trade and Development (Centad), the application of SECURE provisions in the current form "will enable states to interdict and seize the shipment of any product which is suspected to be counterfeit". "Such powers may be used as non-tariff barriers to deny market access from developing countries like India to the markets of other countries."

By Ms. Bobby Aanand, Metropolitan Jury