Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has called a meeting of top bureaucrats on Monday to chalk out a strategy to deal with the intellectual property rights (IPR) issues being raised by the US.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of the US industry, particularly, from the pharmaceutical sector, and trade lobbies putting pressure on their government to put India under ‘Priority Foreign Country’ list for IPR, which may lead to trade sanctions on Indian firms by the US.

S Jaishankar, Indian Ambassador to US, has suggested that the Indian Government should engage with US pharma firms to deliberate on the matter.

American companies are alleging that the Indian IPR regime is not compliant with international norms and discriminates against US firms.

“Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh has requested the Cabinet Secretary to convene a meeting on the issue and the meeting is scheduled for Monday,” sources told PTI.

Besides Seth and Singh, other officials who would attend the meeting include Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher, DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant and Health Secretary Lov Kumar Verma.

According to sources, as part of trade sanctions, the US may consider withdrawing the benefits under the scheme of Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which provides reduced tariffs for Indian goods entering US markets. “The withdrawal of GSP benefits may impact exports of MSME sector to the US. However, the move would not impact Indian exporters much,” they said.

Earlier, India has made it clear that it would drag the US to WTO if America includes it in that list.

Officials have said the demand is completely unfair as India’s IPR regime is compliant with global laws, including the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

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