U.S. Special 301 Process On IPR Is A Unilateral Measure: India


NEW DELHI: India accused the U.S. of taking "unilateral measure" to pressurize countries to accept Intellectual Property Rights protection beyond WTO obligations.

On April 30, the U.S. has brought out the Special 301 report, an annual review of the global state of IPR protection and enforcement, in which it has classified India as a 'priority watch list country'.

"The Special 301 process is a unilateral measure taken by the U.S. under their Trade Act, 1974 to create pressure on countries to increase IPR protection beyond the TRIPS agreement.

"It is an extra territorial application of the domestic law of a country and is not tenable under the overall WTO regime," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

She said that India has a well established legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPR which meets its obligations under the Agreement on Trade Related IPRs (TRIPS) while utilising the flexibilities provided in the international regime to address its developmental concerns.

The concern identified in the USA's report are based on the inputs provided by the American industry on their perception of the level of protection provided by India to Intellectual Property.

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Source: PTI