Over the past year, considerable progress was made by many developing countries and by newly acceding WTO Members toward implementing TRIPS obligations. Nevertheless, full implementation of TRIPS obligations has yet to be achieved in many countries, particularly with respect to the Agreement's enforcement provisions. As a result, piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. intellectual property remain unacceptably high in too many countries.
The United States is committed to a policy of promoting intellectual property protection, in this regard we are also making progress in advancing the protection of these rights through the negotiation of free trade agreements. As part of the negotiations with Jordan, Chile and Singapore, as well as in the hemispheric Free Trade Area of the Americas, we have sought a higher level of intellectual property protection in a number of areas covered by the TRIPS Agreement. The negotiation of these new agreements gives us the opportunity to reflect in the intellectual property provisions the technological changes that have occurred since the TRIPS Agreement was negotiated in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
USTR will continue to use all statutory tools, as appropriate, to improve intellectual property protection in such countries as Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, including through implementation of the Generalized System of Preferences and other trade preference programs.
2001 Special 301 Decisions
Under the Special 301 provisions of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, Ambassador Zoellick today identified 51 trading partners that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property or deny fair and equitable market access to United States artists and industries that rely upon intellectual property protection.
The United States Trade Representative stated that for more than two years, the U.S. Government has been urging the Ukrainian Government to close down the pirates' CD production facilities currently exporting throughout Europe and enact legislation to adequately protect copyrighted works and sound recordings. Despite many promises, including high-level commitments made in June 2000, the Ukrainian Government has been unwilling or unable to curtail the activities of these pirates. Because of this lack of progress, Ukraine was identified as a Priority Foreign Country and a Section 301 investigation was initiated. Regrettably, according to estimates from our copyright industry, Ukraine remains the single largest source of pirated optical media products in central and eastern Europe. Within weeks of identifying Ukraine as a Priority Foreign Country, the U.S. Government engaged with the Government of Ukraine in an intense effort to resolve this problem but no meaningful progress has yet been made.
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 $200 million. The United States urges the Government of Ukraine to take stronger measures on an expedited basis to address this problem
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