property rights in Belarus also is very weak and sales of pirated material are extremely high. In fact, while Belarus has amended its Criminal Code to adopt deterrent penalties for intellectual property rights violations, the Criminal Code still does not contain the proper authority for officials to initiate criminal copyright cases. Although the government of Belarus recently announced that the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of their Phonograms (Geneva Phonograms Convention) has now entered into force in Belarus, there still is no retroactive protection for works or sound recordings under Belarus' copyright law. Moreover, the Interior Ministry has made very discouraging statements that it does not intend to take action to end retail piracy of optical media. Belarus also has become a transshipment point for pirate materials throughout the region. The United States, however, is gratified to see that Belarus has made some progress this year, in particular, shutting down the large Armita optical media plant. It remains important that the criminal investigation involving Armita proceed to a successful conclusion, and that positive enforcement actions be taken to prevent the relocation of other optical media facilities to Belarus. The United States believes that Belarus' application for WTO membership offers an important opportunity to address these legal and enforcement deficiencies.
BOLIVIA
The Bolivian Government has taken several positive administrative steps with respect to enforcement of intellectual property rights, such as the creation of a special prosecutor for intellectual property rights. However, enforcement continues to be sporadic and ineffective in reining in rampant piracy, especially that of CDs, videos, and software. Also, the government has not taken significant steps toward legalizing the use of its own software. The Government of Bolivia is long overdue in enacting intellectual property legislation to implement its TRIPS obligations. In fact, efforts to amend its copyright law have languished. Significantly, Bolivia also does not adequately protect against the improper use of undisclosed proprietary data that is submitted for marketing approval, as required under Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement. We urge Bolivia to take strong actions to protect intellectual property rights, including by issuing a data protection decree. We will monitor Bolivia's actions in this respect, and will review any progress in the Fall.
CANADA
Canada continues to make progress in improving its IPR regime. In December 2002, the Government of Canada (GOC) revised its Copyright Act (Bill C-11) so that internet retransmission is, in effect, excluded from its compulsory licensing regime -- that is, unless licensed by the Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission (the "CRTC") and the CRTC has determined not to so license internet retransmissions. This follows amendments made to Canada's patent law in 2001 to provide 20 year patents that were filed before October 1, 1989. Despite these positive developments, the problems that originally caused Canada to be placed on the Watch List in 1995 remain largely unresolved. For example,
