India-EU Trade Agreement Under Fire

Indian and the European Union are in the final stage of negotations on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement. While India wants to expand its exports, the EU is seeking free access to Indian

More than a thousand health activists and people living with HIV, tuberculosis and cancer are staging a sit-in near the Parliament in New Delhi.

The protesters are opposing the proposed India-EU Free Trade Agreement.

They hold placards which read “Don’t trade away our lives” and “Hands off our medicine.”

Satinder Chaudhary, who is HIV positive, is among the protestors.

“It’s a matter of life and death for us. If this agreement happens, I may have to spend all my earnings on medicine. What would then happen to my family, my children? Do we beg or become thieves to meet our needs?”

Talks between the UE and Asia’s third largest economy have been dragging on for six years.

India wants to expand its exports and attract investment, while the EU seeks to have free access to Indian’s booming market for its banking services and consumer goods.

The EU is also demanding stricter controls on intellectual property rights and data exclusivity for clinical trials by multinational drug manufacturers.

But as lawyer and health activist Kjal Bhardwaj explains, this might lead to an end to cheap generic drugs.

“If we conduct clinical trials we get that data to the Indian drug regulator and once he gets that data he can’t approve another generic medicine.”

She says the EU is using data exclusivity to sidestep India’s rules on granting patents.

“What the Indian law basically does, it has certain health safeguards that say unless your medicine is genuinely new you are not going to get patent in this country. Because what we have seen abroad is that a company will take two medicines, combine them into one pill and apply for patent, take that pill turn into a syrup and apply for a patent on that. It’s called ever greening.”

Recently the Indian Supreme Court rejected a patent application from a Swiss drug company for a popular cancer drug – a decision which was widely welcomed.

Loon Gangte of the Delhi Network of Positive People, wants the government to protect their right to health, just like the Supreme Court did.

“We won’t allow people trading with our lives, God gave us only one life and it is not for sale. Novartis tried to kill me and it was stopped by Supreme Court now there are another 5-6 people who are trying to kill me through FTA, and I hope and I pay and I have full confidence in my government and in my Supreme Court that they will do justice and save me and millions of people who rely on Indian drugs.”

More than 80 percent of generic drugs are produced in India.

Most developing countries depend on India for their medicinal needs, especially anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV AIDS.

Shiba Phurailaptam from the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV, says India must recognize what is at stake and firmly resist pressure from the European Union.

“We have more than 6 million people living with HIV across the developing world who are surviving on the cheaper, good quality drugs coming from this country. So if this Free Trade Agreement is signed based on what the European Commission is asking, then we are basically shutting down that supply line.

The government has also been severely criticized for maintaining complete secrecy during negotiations with the EU.

A Parliamentary committee has voiced its concerns over the issue and now the main opposition party, the BJP, wants the government to stop the negotiations immediately.

Murli Manohar Joshi is the BJP’s senior leader.

“Why is the government in such hurry? There are serious issues involved that need thorough deliberation, but the government wants to impose an unfair agreement on the country without even discussing it. It hasn’t even consulted the main stake holders. Why do we need to improve the EU’s economy at the cost of our own farmers, dairy producers and poor patients? “

The Free Trade Agreement also faces stiff resistance from farmers and traders, who says the EU’s terms are unfair and exploitative.