of progress to date, USTR will take the next step in our dispute with Denmark and request the establishment of a WTO panel unless progress is made imminently.
Greece -- In 1998, Ambassador Barshefsky announced the initiation of WTO dispute settlement proceedings against Greece concerning rampant television piracy in Greece and their failure to comply with the enforcement provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. In September 1998, Greece enacted legislation that offered an additional administrative enforcement procedure against such concerns. Despite this progress, however, the United States has been unable to resolve this dispute because of the refusal of Greece and the EC to provide assurances that Greece will continue to implement its new enforcement procedure in a strong and consistent manner, and will continue to seek to improve the handling of intellectual property cases in the court system. We look to the Government of Greece to quickly provide these assurances so that this long-standing bilateral irritant can be removed from our bilateral agenda.
Ireland -- It has been over five years since the WTO TRIPS Agreement came into force and the Government of Ireland has yet to implement a fully TRIPS-consistent copyright law. Three years ago, the United States initiated dispute settlement proceedings to address our concern over this situation. After numerous consultations, Ireland committed to enact comprehensive copyright reform legislation by December 1, 1998, and agreed to pass a separate bill, on an expedited basis, to address two particularly pressing enforcement issues. Consistent with this agreement, Ireland enacted legislation in June 1998 raising criminal penalties for copyright infringement and addressing other enforcement issues. However, Ireland's commitment to enact comprehensive copyright legislation has not been met. We understand recent progress has been made toward finalizing this legislation and expect it will be enacted by parliament before its summer recess. The U.S. Government remains hopeful that Ireland will take the steps necessary to complete the legislative process in the very near future, but will feel compelled to consider other options in the face of any further delay.
In addition to the above, there are a number of other WTO Members that likewise appear not to be in compliance with their TRIPS obligations, and which we are still considering as possible future dispute settlement cases. These countries include members of the Andean Community, Australia, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, the Philippines, Poland, and Uruguay. We will continue to consult in the coming months with all these countries in an effort to encourage them to resolve outstanding TRIPS compliance concerns as soon as possible. We will also gather data on these countries' enforcement of their TRIPS obligations and assess the best cases for further action if consultations prove unsuccessful.
Examples of Progress during the Past Year
While on-going piracy and counterfeiting problems persist in many countries, progress has occurred in a number of countries. An attachment to this release, entitled Developments in
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