Trade Can’t Be Fair for Everybody

(Wall Street Journal Blog – John W. Miller)

Trade deals involve giving up one interest for another more valuable.

Since 2007, the European Union and India have been working on an agreement that would cut most import tariffs. EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht says it should be completed by the end of the year.

One of the EU’s biggest interests in all trade talks is pharmaceuticals. EU exports to non-European countries rose to $110.8 billion in 2009, making it the EU’s fourth-best export, after nuclear parts and machinery, electrical equipment and electronics, and vehicles. However, exports of EU pharmaceuticals to India, the world’s second-most populous country, were worth only $481.3 million last year. That’s partly because India is home to a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry of its own, and because it’s much harder to renew drug patents in India. Read more here.