Brussels, 12/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 12 February, the EU Council of Ministers adopted, without debate, the regulation taking the number of pharmaceutical and chemical products benefiting from bound duty-free treatment upon import into the EU from 7,329 to 8,619. Under the terms of the WTO agreement on the trade in pharmaceutical products signed in 1994, the European Community grants duty-free entry to such products. The list of products is reviewed every three years and 1,290 new pharmaceutical and chemical products will be added in 2007.
The European Commission says this third revision of the agreement will eliminate customs duties from the main pharmaceutical trading nations and territories. The regulation will also improve the competitiveness of the EU pharmaceutical companies. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson's staff say that the EU, the United States and Switzerland have been part of the agreement since 1 January 2007, and that Japan is expected to apply this revision later this year. The third revision of the agreement was launched in 2000 and the Commission put its proposal to the Council on 14 October 2006. During the technical discussions, in which the Commission took part, the parties agreed, in the light of scientific developments (particularly in biotechnologies): - to add 820 international non-proprietary names (INNs) and 470 new intermediates used in the production and manufacture of pharmaceutical products; - to expand the list of specified prefixes and suffixes for salts, esters or hydrates of INNs.
The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) has estimated that savings for EU pharmaceutical companies generated by the agreement will be around €230 million in 2007 (compared with €100 million at the previous revision of the list in 1999). The loss of revenue for the EU has been evaluated at €175.5 million for 2007. This loss in traditional own resources will be compensated by member states increasing their GDP (gross domestic product). (lc)