With a slew of Free Trade Agreements under negotiation with many countries including the European Union causing apprehensions on the pharmaceutical sector and drawing flaks from the public interest groups, the Commerce Ministry is now gathering inputs from the pharmaceutical industry ahead of next round of crucial talks on the proposed FTA with Israel.

The Commerce Ministry has asked the Pharmaceutical Department to gather the inputs including the expected safeguards to protect the interests of the domestic players while leveraging maximum gains out of the FTA. The DoP, in turn, has already written to the leading pharma associations to submit the views and comments on crucial issues like tariff reduction.

The Commerce Ministry, which is negotiating with Israel, has reportedly written to many departments representing different sectors of industry, as there was lots of criticism in the past about not gathering sufficient inputs directly from the industry before finalising the clauses of the FTA with EU. Pharma is a major trade component between India and Israel and hence the views of pharma industry would be given due importance, sources claimed.

The DoP has asked the industry bodies to send out comments on tariff reduction on pharma related products covered under Chapter – 30 of the Export Policy. Views were also sought on phased reduction of tariff rates under Harmonised System (HS) code 2933, 2937 and inclusion of HS code 2935, 2938, 2939, 2941 and 2942 in negative list of India (denying any tariff concession to Israel).

Besides, the department has informed the associations to point out in detail their comments on the non-tariff barriers and measures that are adversely affecting or would likely to affect the pharma trade with Israel. The Commerce Ministry has also called for reasons for the decline in the export of pharmaceuticals to Israel in the recent years, sources said.

The first round of the ongoing negotiations for comprehensive free trade pact was held in May last year and the second round of talks were held in Jerusalem in February. The Commerce Ministry has launched the exercise of collecting inputs, in the light of these talks.