SPCS: good for Europe, bad for India?

From the Institute of International Trade (the Centre for WTO Studies affiliated to the West Bengal University of Technology) comes a report that India is currently engaged in bilateral negotiations with the European Union over a Free Trade Agreement which contains a chapter on the Intellectual Property. The article quotes IP commentator and author Carlos M. Correa as warning that higher IP standards sought by the EU can create disaster for the supply the FTA resulting in the future extension of patents as well as the possibility of preventing generic competition.

Left: The Taj Mahal: steps were famously taken here to prevent the manufacture of copies ...

The article continues:

"Not only ‘data exclusivity’ provision, FTA also contains the idea of ‘supplementary protection certificate’ that requires for the extension of patent term for an additional 5 years so that it can compensate the minimum time required for the marketing approval of a medicinal product".

The article concludes that the FTA would be bad news for India -- a conclusion that is presumably coloured by the assumption that the only sector of the Indian pharma industry that needs the protection of law is the generic sector, and this will remain the case.

A brisk search of the usual European news sources has not thrown any light on these negotiations. Can any reader of this weblog enlighten us?