efforts over the next few months. However, Ukraine will be identified as a Priority Foreign Country if it fails to make substantial progress toward eliminating pirate optical media production prior to August 1, 2000.
Copyright piracy in Ukraine is extensive and enforcement is severely lacking, resulting in increasing unauthorized production and export of CDs and CD-ROMs. U.S. industry estimates that losses to the music industry alone are $210 million. The United States urges the Government of Ukraine to take stronger measures on an urgent basis to address this problem through the implementation of effective optical media production controls and other available means. In addition, a number of Ukraine's intellectual property laws, especially trademark, patent and copyright, fall short of compliance with the minimum standards set out in the TRIPS Agreement and the 1992 U.S.-Ukraine bilateral trade agreement. It is unclear whether Ukraine protects pre-1973 copyrighted works; it does not provide retroactive protection for sound recordings.
Ambassador Barshefsky again designated Paraguay and China for "Section 306 monitoring" to ensure both countries comply with the commitments made to the United States under bilateral intellectual property agreements. Special concern was expressed that Paraguay's efforts have not been sufficient in recent months, and further consultations will be scheduled.
Ambassador Barshefsky also announced placement of 16 trading partners on the "Priority Watch List": Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, the European Union, Greece, Guatemala, India, Israel, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Peru, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. She also placed 39 trading partners on the "Watch List." Countries that were not mentioned in the report last year but are on the Watch List this year include: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In addition, out-of-cycle reviews will be conducted of Italy, Korea and Macau.
Finally, Ambassador Barshefsky noted that while she was not listing El Salvador or the West Bank and Gaza, USTR will conduct out-of-cycle reviews of each in September and December 2000, respectively. The review of El Salvador will assess the government's efforts to improve enforcement procedures and to promote the use of authorized software in all government ministries. The review of the West Bank and Gaza will assess its progress toward implementation of promised enforcement actions against pirate CD manufacturers.
Intellectual Property and Health Policy
On December I, 1999, President Clinton announced that the United States is committed to helping developing countries gain access to essential medicines, including those for HIV/AIDS. Also on December 1, United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala announced their intention to develop a cooperative approach on health-related intellectual property matters to ensure that the application of U.S. trade law related to intellectual property remains sufficiently flexible to respond to public health
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