TRIPS and TRIMS India's Foreign

Trade
 Trade Related Investment Measures
(TRIMs)
• It refers to certain condition or restrictions imposed
by a Government in respect of foreign investment
in the country. The TRIM text provides that the
foreign capital would not be discriminated by the
member Governments.
• TRIMs is an agreement applies to trade in goods.
• It prohibits measures that are inconsistent with
articles III and XI of GATT 1994: local content;
trade balancing, export restrictions.
 Features of TRIMs
1. Abolition of restriction imposed on foreign capital
2. Offering equal rights to the foreign investor on par
with the domestic investor
3. No restrictions on any area of investment
4. No limitation or ceiling on the quantum of foreign
investment
5. Granting of permission of without restrictions to
import raw material and other components
6. No force on the foreign investors to use the total
products and or materials
7. Export of the part of the final product will not be
mandatory
 Features of TRIMs-Cont….
8. Restriction on repatriation of dividend interest and royalty will be
removed
9. It applies only to investment measures related to trade in goods (not
trade in services).
10.It focuses on the discriminatory treatment of products
(imported/exported).
11. It does not regulate the entry of foreign investment or investors.
12. This measures are applied to both foreign and local firms.
 Trade Related Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPs)
Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights
(TRIPS).
Intellectual property rights may be defined as “Information with
commercial value”.
IPR have been characterised as a composite of “ideas and
creative expression”. Plus “ the public willingness to bestow
the status of property. It include

a. Protection of patent
b. Copyright
c. Industrial design
d. Geographical indication
e. Trademarks
f. Trade secrets
g. Layout design (topographies of integral circuits)
 Coverage of TRIPS
Areas of intellectual property covered:
• Copyright and related rights
• Trademarks including service marks
• Geographical indications including appellations of
origin
• Industrial designs
• Patents including the protection of new varieties of
plants;
• The layout-designs of integrated circuits; and
• Undisclosed information, including trade secrets
and test data.
 Coverage of TRIPS-cont...
Enforcement Provisions
• General Principles applicable to IPRs
• Specifies Procedures that must be available
Dispute Settlement
• Part of the integrated Dispute Settlement
System of the WTO
• No unilateral action by Members allowed
 TRIPS Council – Regular Session and
Special Session

TRIPS
COUNCIL

REGULAR SESSION SPECIAL SESSION

Review of legislation, Negotiations /mult. System
public health, of notif. & reg. of GIs
Biotech./TK/biodiversity, etc. for wines and spirits
Chair: Trevor Clarke, Barbados Chair: Manzoor AHMAD, Pakistan
 TRIPS Council: Current Issues
 Public health
 Finding a solution for countries with no or insufficient
manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector to make effective
use of compulsory licensing (Decision of 6 December 2005; IP/C/41)
 Geographical indications
 multilateral register for GIs for wines and spirits
 discussions on "extension“
 „clawback“ proposal by the EC in Agriculture
 Biotechnology/traditional knowledge/biodiversity
discuss the relationship between the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) and the TRIPS Agreement
 Introduction of a disclosure requirement for patent applicants
proposed by Brasil, India and others.
 TRIMS and TRIPS Difference
• TRIP: Trade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property
Rights is an agreement which allow members to
provide protection of intellectual property and left free
to determine the appropriate method of implementing
the provisions of the agreement within their own legal
system and practice.

TRIM: Trade Related Investment Measures an

agreement regarding Trade Related that making the
approval of investment conditional on compliance with
laws, polices or administrative regulations that
favoured domestic products.
 TRIMS and TRIPS Differences
• TRIM: Trade Related Investment Measures are rules that
apply to the domestic regulations a country applies to
foreign investors, often as part of an industrial policy.
A....TRIM is/are rules, which restrict preference of
domestic firms and thereby enable international firms to
operate more easily within foreign markets.
Example: Export Prohibited items from India: Gold, animals,
natural resources (some kind of trees) etc.

TRIP: Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights

is an agreement that sets down minimum standards for many
forms of intellectual property regulation. Specifically,
contains requirements that nations law must meet for:
copyright rights, patents; trademarks and undisclosed of
confidential information.
 Foreign Trade
• International (Foreign) trade means trade between the
two or more countries. It involves different currencies
of different countries and is regulated by laws, rules
and regulations of the concerned countries.
• There are 2 types of Trade
1. Internal Trade
2. External Trade
• India is the 18th largest export economy in the world
and the 50th most complex economy according to the
Economic Complexity Index (ECI). In 2014, India
exported $292B and imported $421B, resulting in a
negative trade balance of $129B. In 2014 the GDP of
India was $2.05T and its GDP per capita was $5.7k.
Top exports and Imports of India
Exports
• Refined Petroleum ($53.9B),
• Packaged Medicaments ($12.1B),
• Jewellery ($11.8B),
• Rice ($7.75B)
• Cars ($5.82B).

Imports
• Crude Petroleum ($122B),
• Gold ($31.1B),
• Petroleum Gas ($17.7B),
• Diamonds ($17.5B)
• Coal Briquettes ($15.4B).

Source: http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/ind/
 Top export destinations of India
• United States ($35.9B),
• United Arab Emirates ($29.6B),
• China($13.9B),
• Saudi Arabia($13B)
• United Kingdom ($10.6B).
 Top five Importing courtiers to the
India
• China ($52.5B),
• Saudi Arabia ($30B),
• United Arab Emirates($24.4B),
• Switzerland ($21.3B)
• United States ($18.2B).