New Delhi: The government has ruled out any concession in duty on gold or relaxation in intellectual property rights.I Pr) Governance for the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) country, led by Switzerland.
The four-nation trading bloc comprises Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, with the terms of trade tilted in favor of EFTA, given the large scale gold imports from Switzerland. In fact, $13. Imports of $ 6 billion so far this year, about $ 12. 9 billion are from Switzerland.
Switzerland has been seeking a low or zero import duty regime for gold, which was first turned down by Indian authorities nearly a decade ago. In addition, it seeks concessions on the patent regime in view of the interests of global pharmaceutical giants such as Novartis and Roche, who find the Indian law too rigid because of what the government believes are “evergreen” or expanding scrutiny provisions. Through small tweaks of the patent.
The four-nation trading bloc comprises Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, with the terms of trade tilted in favor of EFTA, given the large scale gold imports from Switzerland. In fact, $13. Imports of $ 6 billion so far this year, about $ 12. 9 billion are from Switzerland.
Switzerland has been seeking a low or zero import duty regime for gold, which was first turned down by Indian authorities nearly a decade ago. In addition, it seeks concessions on the patent regime in view of the interests of global pharmaceutical giants such as Novartis and Roche, who find the Indian law too rigid because of what the government believes are “evergreen” or expanding scrutiny provisions. Through small tweaks of the patent.
During April-February, gold imports from the trading block go up to about $10. 5 billion. Any duty concession would not only come at a cost to the Indian exchequer in the form of duty loss, but would also reduce the flexibility available to the Center to change import duties as per its requirements.
With India continuing to negotiate with the EU and the UK, EFTA negotiators recently met Indian officials including the Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyalwho have also pushed for lucrative service sectors to open up in these high-income countries.
Sources told TOI that the government has also discussed with some pharma giants from Switzerland how Indian companies can collaborate.
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