New Delhi Jul 14: Amid a pending court case between their pharmaceutical firms here, Germany today expressed “full confidence” in the Indian legal system but said it should also give positive signals to investors.
“We have certain cases pending in the courts. It is clear that an investor wants to have security and the signal which needs to come from India is also legal security. But let me say we have full confidence in the Indian legal system that these cases will be solved,” German Ambassador Michael Steiner told reporters here, a day after he presented his credentials to the President.
His remarks came in the backdrop of a German company Bayer's case in Delhi High Court over a patent infringement suit against an Indian company on March 15, 2010, in response to a decision of the Drug Controller General of India ( DCGI) to grant Cipla marketing authorisation for a generic version of Nexavar, a cancer drug.
Bayer Pharma had also confirmed that it has launched a legal challenge to the compulsory licence issued by India in March this year to domestic drugmaker Natco Pharma to manufacture and sell a low-cost generic copy of Nexavar.
The Ambassador also hoped for finalisation of the free trade agreement between India and EU by this year end, maintaining that this will send a strong signal that “the process was dynamic and that we mean business”.
India and the 27-nation European Union (EU) are negotiating a Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) since June 2007.
The talks for the agreement were to conclude in 2011 but differences between the two sides on the level of opening of the market came in the way of the BTIA.
The pact aims at slashing or eliminating duties on maximum number of goods trade between the two. It would also liberalise investment regime and services trade.
He also said India and Germany, which is the largest trading partner of New Delhi in the EU bloc, were set to achieve Euro 20 billion trade target this year
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