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New Delhi: After much disagreement, India and Pakistan have again started discussing the joint registration of basmati rice under the Geographical Indications (GI). After Pakistan’s refusal to accept India’s offer of joint registration of basmati as it is a ‘common heritage’ under few months back, a team of India had visited Pakistan earlier this month.
While an official with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) on Tuesday claimed both the countries are ‘at the advanced stage of filing the joint application’, sources said there are many contentious issues yet to be resolved.
Despite disagreement on many issues relating to getting a basmati GI, officials from India and Pakistan would again meet in early January 2009 for filing a joint application. “Both countries are yet to have a common view on issues like definition of Basmati, areas for cultivation and means of dealing with misuse of basmati level by a third party or country,” sources said.
“It is in our common interest that both the countries settle all the issues regarding GI registration as it would boost exports and command better prices abroad,” an Apepda official said. Few months back, Pakistan had granted a trademark by to the Basmati Growers Association (BGA), investing it with the claim of exclusivity, even as India and Pakistan had earlier agreed to jointly bid for a GI to the basmati.
The registrar of Trade Mark, Karachi, while granting the TM on BGA, has set aside the opposition of Apeda through its legal council. Apeda had offered to jointly register basmati under GI along with the Rice Exporters’ Association of Pakistan, which was rejected by the Pakistan government.
Then the European Union (EU) stated that it would not accept basmati registration separately and consider it as a product of both Pakistan and India. It is believed that the EU’s step forced Pakistan to agree for talks with India. Pakistan has been consistently maintained that basmati is the product historically originated from the its side of Punjab.
In the absence of GI, many private companies have been unsuccessfully trying to register their products as ‘basmati’. Basmati, an aromatic long-grain rice variety grown in the Gangetic plains in India and Pakistan commands a premium price over other rice varieties in the international market. India’s basmati rice exports have been rising consistently since last one decade. The exports from India rose to Rs 3548 crore during...
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