The European Commissioners for External Trade and for Taxation and Customs Union have replied to TACD in a letter available here:
Dear All,
Catherine Ashton and László Kovács, respectively European Commissioners for External Trade and for Taxation and Customs Union, replied to the letter sent by the co-chairs of the TACD IP working group on 9 February 2009 (here attached as a reminder) which aimed to draw the attention of the European Commission on the recent seizures of generic medicines by the Dutch customs authorities (see attached reply letter from the Commission, dated March 16).
It is worth noting that the letter of the Commission is quite detailed. They also provide an annex on the compatibility of the EU customs legislation on IPR enforcement with TRIPS, and an annex on Free trade Agreements policy as regards IPR enforcement.
They invite TACD to contribute to the ongoing revision of the European customs legislation.
Best regards,
Anne-Catherine Lorrain
Intellectual Property Policy Expert
The TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD)
80, rue d’Arlon, 1040 Bruxelles, Belgium
aclorrain@consint.org
Mob (Belgium): +32 473 99 97 92
Tel: +32 2 740 28 17, Fax: +32 2 740 28 02www.tacd.org, www.tacd-ip.org/blog
We will study the EU response, and offer comments later.