EU-India Free Trade Agreement draft

EU-India Free Trade Agreement draft, 24 Feb 2009

WikiLeaks, June 22, 2009

Summary

This important EU-restricted document establishes the latest "clean text" draft of the EU-India free trade agreement (FTA). The agreement is scheduled to have a profound impact on many laws, industries and prices. This includes patent and copyright laws, the pharmaceutical industry and the cost of health care in both Europe and India.

The draft contains passages similar to the prospective plurilateral "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" or ACTA, which has been widely condemned by civil society activists as a Trojan horse for the US drug and copyright industries (several ACTA drafts have also been released by WikiLeaks).

It is vital for industry and civil society in the EU and India to know what their government's intend to agree to, at a time when these agreements are still plyable, and not after, when the details have become a political fait accompli.

For a related analysis, see "Will India Accept Trips-Plus Protection?" (PDF).

Another copy of the document was released on April 17, 2009 by civil society site http://bilaterals.org/