Consultations On WTO Drug Transit Case Continue

The second round of World Trade Organization dispute settlement consultations between the European Union and the Netherlands and India and Brazil over the seizure of generic medicines in transit were held this week. The first round of consultations was in July.

Brazil and India in May announced separate requests for consultations with the EU and Netherlands in response to several shipments of drugs stopped by customs authorities while en route from India to other developing countries on the grounds that they violated patents in Europe, even though it was not the destination market (IPW, Public Health, 12 May 2010). Since then, Canada, China, Ecuador, India, Japan and Turkey have joined the consultations.

Participants in the 13-14 September consultations told Intellectual Property Watch that the consultation was a chance for the EU to answer many of the concerns of the complainant countries. The EU promised to address the concerns of Brazil and India, participants said, with the complainants retaining the option to take the process further if concerns are not adequately addressed. Should either country decide to continue the process, it could result in the formation of a panel under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.

The EU law at issue is customs regulation 1383/2003 concerning “customs action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights and the measures to be taken against goods found to have infringed such rights.”