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Total Current Projects: 7   Implications Of WTO Commitments On Indian Automobile Industry Category: Industry-specific implications of WTO Agreements     Details: The issues that are particularly important in the context of the negotiations that are being conducted in the WTO as a part of the Doha Development Agenda include investment, competition policy, rules of origin and tariffs and other non-tariff barriers. This project will involve preparing short notes/briefing papers, which would be aimed at providing options that the automobile industry could consider while preparing itself for the WTO negotiations. The notes/briefing papers would be prepared with inputs from the SIAM Secretariat and other industry players.       Agricultural Database Category: Agriculture     Details: The database that is being prepared involves putting together, in a user friendly format, the notifications submitted by the WTO Member countries in keeping with their commitments under the AoA. The notifications that are being included in the database cover the following areas at present: 1. Domestic support 2. Export subsidies 3. Tariff rate quotas Besides the notifications, the database would also include the international and domestic prices of select commodities. All efforts would be made to prepare by July 31, 2003, the database as per notifications submitted to the WTO by Member countries upto May 2003. Work will be carried on for updating the database on a continuous basis.       The “Food Security Box”: An Attempt At Identifying Its Possible Elements Category: Agriculture     Details: The on-going review of the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) provides an opportunity to take a hard re-look at the policy dimension of possibly the most critical sector for a vast majority of the WTO Member countries. Mandated under Article 20 of the Agreement, the review has to take into consideration non-trade concerns, including food security, objectives that have been stated in the preamble to the AoA. The Doha Ministerial Declaration has gone further to emphasise that the negotiations should “enable developing countries to effectively take account of their development needs, including food security and rural development”. In a detailed submission in January 2001 proposals India had provided some leads for the identifying the measures that could form a part of the “Food Security Box”, a comprehensive list of the measures that can be included in the proposed “Box” would have to be prepared. This exercise would have to be carried out at two levels. In the first instance, the measures that both the Central and the State Governments are currently employing for the development of the agricultural sector have to be analysed to make an assessment whether or not these measures are consistent with the existing provisions of the AoA. The second part of the exercise would involve identifying specific measures that are considered imperative for protecting the interests of the farming community assuming that the on-going review of the AoA does not result in removing the existing distortions in the market for agricultural commodities. The study that is being conducted covers all the above mentioned issues. More specifically the following issues would be dealt with: 1. Analysis of the proposal for establishing the “Food Security Box” 2. Identifying measures taken by the Central and the State Governments to promote agriculture and rural development with a view to assessing whether or not these are consistent with the provisions of the AoA 3. Identification of measures that should be included in the proposed “Food Security Box”       Preparation Of India’s Position On Future Rules Category: Services     Details: Issues relating to trade in services are not going to be resolved only through market access and national procurement negotiations. In fact, many of these barriers will be resolved only through development of rules on domestic regulations, hence a detailed study is being undertaken to provide inputs to the Ministry to negotiate future rules in the area of services.       Analysis And Preparation Of Initial Offers Category: Services     Details: As per the mandate of Doha Ministerial Declaration, the member countries had to submit their initial offers as part of on going services negotiations. This project has two components: 1. Examination of the offers submitted by WTO Members 2. Preparation of India’s offers Work on both these components is being carried out simultaneously. Till date, more than 20 countries (mainly from the developed world) have submitted their offers, which are being analysed to ascertain whether these offers have accommodated India’s requests. India’s offers are also being prepared with a view to submitting them to the WTO at an early date.       Removal Of MFN Exemptions Category: Services     Details: During Uruguay Round, a number of developed countries had taken MFN Exemptions, particularly in those services sector which are of vital export interest to India. It is in our interest that these exemptions are removed as early as possible during the ongoing services negotiations. In order to achieve that a detailed project study has been undertaken. The aim is to consider the existing MFN exemptions in depth with a view to analysing their implications for India.       Compulsory Licensing Provisions: A Study Of Select Country Experiences Category: Intellectual Property Rights     Details: The evolution of the international patent system during the past century has witnessed debates the most significant of which centered on the provisions for the grant of compulsory licences. Compulsory licensing system was introduced in the patent laws to ensure working of the patent in the country of grant, i.e. using the patent for commercial exploitation. This is the only obligation that the patent system imposes on the patent holder, as was made explicit in the Model Law for Developing Countries on Inventions and Know-How framed by the WIPO in the late 1970s. The entire system of patenting, otherwise, confers only rights that can be enjoyed by the patentee. In order that the patent is worked and to prevent the abuse of patent system arising out of non-working of the patent, the Paris Convention had devised the instrument of compulsory licensing. In the event of an abuse of the patent right due to non-working, the patent granting authority was given the powers to issue a licence to anyone who was willing to “work” the patent. An examination of select country experiences would be beneficial for developing countries like India as they try to give effect to their commitments under the TRIPS Agreement, including those that arise from the implementation of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. The study is also examining the Indian experience of implementing the compulsory licensing system. The following broad issues are being examined in the study: 1. A comparative analysis of compulsory licensing provisions in the regimes of select countries 2. Working of compulsory licensing system in select countries 3. Determination of the terms of licence, in particular the compensation paid to the patentee for the use of the patent 4. Implementation of the compulsory licensing system in India     Page  | 1

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