minimum standards of TRIPS to ensure effective enforcement at the national and local levels, including free trade zones in countries such as Belize, Panama and the United Arab Emirates. The global scourge of piracy and counterfeiting requires stronger and more effective border enforcement to stop the import, export, and transit of pirated and counterfeit goods.
This is why USTR seeks through our FTAs and our bilateral consultations to ensure that criminal penalties are high enough to have a deterrent effect, both in the law and as imposed by the courts and administrative bodies, as well as to ensure that pirated and counterfeit products, and the equipment used to make them, are seized and destroyed. These products can be produced and sold at prices much lower than legitimate products, but still deliver attractive profit margins for the infringer because the counterfeit and pirated products are usually made with substandard materials, and undergo little or no quality control or even basic health and safety testing. The economic damage caused by counterfeiting to the legitimate companies whose products are counterfeited is enormous. Losses to U.S. industries alone are estimated at $200 to $250 billion per year.
Controlling Optical Media Production
To address existing and prevent future pirate activity, over the past year some of our trading partners, such as the Philippines and Poland, have taken important steps toward implementing, or have committed to adopt, much-needed controls on opfical media production. We await news of aggressive enforcement of these laws. However, others that are in urgent need of such controls, including India, Indonesia, Lithuania, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine have not made sufficient progress in this regard.
Governments, such as those of Hong Kong and Macau that implemented optical media controls in previous years have clearly demonstrated their commitment to continue to enforce these measures. Taiwan and Malaysia are steadily improving their enforcement as well. The effectiveness of such measures is underscored by the direct experience of these governments in successfully reducing pirate production of optical media. We continue to urge our trading partners facing the threat of pirate optical media production within their borders to adopt similar controls or aggressively enforce existing regulations in the coming year.
Implementation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement
One of the most significant achievements of the Uruguay Round was the negotiation of the TRIPS Agreement, which requires all WTO Members to provide certain minimum standards of protection for patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, geographical indications and other forms of intellectual property. The Agreement also requires countries to provide effective IPR enforcement. The TRIPS Agreement is the first broadly-subscribed multilateral intellectual property agreement that is enforceable between governments, allowing them to resolve disputes through the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.
Developed countries were required to fully implement TRIPS as of January 1, 1996, while developing countries were given a transition period – until January 1, 2000. Ensuring that developing countries are in full compliance with the Agreement now that this transition period has come to an end is one of this Administration's highest IPR priorities. With respect to least developed countries, and with respect to the protection of pharmaceuticals and agriculture chemicals in certain developing countries, even longer transitions are provided.
Developing countries continue to make progress toward full implementation of their TRIPS obligations.
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