The United States on Tuesday set at rest speculation that it was trying to exclude countries like India and Brazil from the ambit of trade-related intellectual property rights and public health in the World Trade Organisation, but said some of its concerns on possible misuse of the provision to waive patent rights in case of epidemics should be addressed.
"No it is not true...no question of excluding India and Brazil from the programme," E Ashley Wills, Assistant United States Trade Representative for South Asia, said.
He said steps were underway to ensure that the issue was resolved before the Cancun ministerial meeting next month.
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Wills, however, said the US firms needed to be assured that the drugs meant for use in countries without manufacturing facilities were not diverted to other markets. He added that the mechanism for settlement of disputes under TRIPs and public health was another issue that needed to be resolved.
The assistant USTR, who met Indian officials during his five-day visit, also said despite Washington's ambitious proposals on market access for agricultural and industrial goods, it was willing to discuss the matter with other trading partners and factor in their concerns.
"There are more gains in opening markets. The main issue for us is to use the opportunity under the current round of negotiations to open markets in a way not achieved in the past," Wills said. He said India was in favour of tariff cuts but was concerned about the pace.
On agricultural negotiations, he said both India and the US had a common position on reduction in domestic support and export subsidies as also reduction of tariffs. "We don't agree on specific tariff lines but we are in early stages of talks," he said.
Wills said steel was one of the issues that was raised during the bilateral discussions and things were moving on the investment front with India becoming more favourable to foreign investors in the last few years but there was scope for improvement.
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