The public hearing on Special 301 report for 2014 hearing took place yesterday in Washington DC. This report prepared annualy by USTR identifies countries that allegedly “deny adequate and effective” protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) or deny “fair and equitable” market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection. Pharma industry in US has asked USTR to designate India as “Priority Foreign Country” in this report which would mean country having inadequate IP laws and may be subjected to trade sanctions. -
Submissions made by the civil society at the hearing can be read here:
Public Citizen, Knowledge Ecology International, Legal Professors: Srividhya Ragavan, Brook Baker, Sean Flynn
In addition to this, an independent committee set up by USTR named US International Trade Council (USITC) launched an investigation to examine a wide range of Indian policies that discriminate against U.S. trade and investment.The investigative report by USITC is going to analyse trends and policies in India affecting trade and foreign direct investment in agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors, as well as the overall business environment and its impact on US industry and economy. The submissions made by civil society at the public hearing held by USITC last week can be accessed here:
Legal Professors: Srividhya Ragavan, Brook Baker, Sean Flynn
Knowledge Ecology International
A good gist of the submissions made by civil society and industry is available at Infojustice
