Context: In a draft of the India – EFTA free trade agreement, a clause may postpone the access to affordable generic drugs in India for six years.
About Europe Free Trade Association (EFTA):
- It is the intergovernmental organisation set up in 1960 (through Stockholm Convention) for the promotion of free trade and economic integration between its members.
- Members: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
- It does not envisage political integration.
- It does not issue legislation, nor does it establish a customs union.
- EFTA States are not obliged by the EFTA Convention to conclude preferential trade agreements as a group. They maintain the full right to enter into bilateral third-country arrangements.
- The EFTA Council is the highest governing body of EFTA, usually meets eight times a year at the ambassadorial level (heads of permanent delegations to EFTA) and twice a year at Ministerial level. Each Member State is represented and decisions are taken by consensus.
- The Chairmanship rotates every six months. For the EFTA Council, the chairmanship rotates between Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
- Secretariat: Geneva, Austria.