By IANS,
New Delhi : India will not accept any regulation framed outside the multilateral trading framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to enforce intellectual property rights (IPR), Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said Tuesday.
“Multilateral agreements cannot be changed outside the multilateral forum. India will not accept any such a decision,” Sharma said, referring to reports that some developed countries were in the process of enacting anti-counterfeit trade agreements, which contain Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)-plus provisions.
The US, European Union, Japan, Canada and some other developed countries are discussing an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to set higher standards for enforcement of intellectual property rights.
“We believe that certain provisions in this proposed agreement are violative of TRIPS and we are firmly against such move which fall outside multilateral framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” said Sharma.
The minister said the IPR regime in India was robust and struck a balance between the interests of general public rights holders.