Indian officials say EU willing to split trade talks from drug spat

Indian commerce officials say the European Union is showing a willingness to restart trade talks and separate those discussions from a ban on 700 drugs tested in India that imperils exports worth billions of dollars, according to a report by India's Economic Times. The newspaper quoted officials saying "we have to see what they have in mind" and that, officially, India has not changed its stance since it called off talks in August for the India-EU Broadbased Investment and Trade Agreement. The move came after the EU barred drugs tested by GVK Biosciences because of quality control problems and possibly falsified data. Officials with the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance said then that the drug inspector sent by France was "not competent" to review the data from the tests. The newspaper said Indian officials have produced evidence they say shows the test results were valid. Report