Brussels, 04/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - Speaking to EUROPE on the sidelines of the 7th ministerial conference of the WTO in Geneva on Wednesday 2 December, Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma said that he had not raised the issue of generic medicines during a short meeting with former European Commissioner for Trade Catherine Ashton on 30 November. Mr Sharma nonetheless repeated the message sent out to the European authorities during two bilateral meetings with Baroness Ashton, held at the beginning and the end of the month of September in New Delhi, at which the two sides managed to resolve their dispute over generic medicines amicably (EUROPE 10015). For several months, Brazil and India have been threatening to bring a complaint to the WTO regarding this dossier, after the Netherlands blocked a delivery by Europe of generic medicines made in India and bound for Brazil, on the grounds of the fight against counterfeiting. "We had very strongly raised this with the EU because the actions of some countries are not in conformity with GATT or the accepted trade protocols. These are not TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) 'plus' but TRIPS illegal. Because the shipments meant for third countries, in this case Brazil has also equally protested, Indian generics have made an enormous contribution to making medicines available to poor people at affordable prices. It is the Indian pharmaceutical industry which has (...) brought about a positive change from the days when the suffocating stranglehold of multinational drug cartels denied life-saving medicines to people in poor countries”, Mr Sharma explained. "I also mentioned that there is a deliberate and devious campaign by certain vested interests, which have surely lost huge benefits, to confuse about Indian generics, which gives 20% of generic medicines to the world, by bringing in issues which are not connected, even remotely, to generics like counterfeit or spurious drugs. We will not allow a situation where not only India, but our partner countries too, have to take action to safeguard the interests of our pharmaceutical industry, which in any case is one of the largest in the world (...). Those who are campaigning against are hurting the interests of poor people throughout the world", the Indian minister concluded. (E.H./transl.fl)