[Ecommerce] EU-US cooperation on IP enforcement

[Manon Ress]

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http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/rm/2005/56707.htm

Released on November 9, 2005

Multilateral Cooperation Case Study: IP and the Global Agenda

E. Anthony Wayne, Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs
Transatlantic Policy Network Autumn Strategy Meeting
Washington, DC
November 3, 2005

I am very glad to be here today to discuss the critical contribution
transatlantic operation can make to meeting the global challenge to
the innovation economy that the violation of intellectual property
rights represents.

With roughly 7% of annual global trade involving trade in
illegitimate goods -- roughly $600 billion and growing -- and
counterfeiting alone costing U.S. businesses as much as $250 billion
annually -- there is no question in my mind that the nations of
Europe are also suffering great economic consequences from the sad
fact that intellectual property crime is a growth industry.

But it is not just our "nations," not just faceless "governments,"
that are suffering. The real glue that binds us is the reality that
every single day, countless numbers of American and European business
owners -- large and small, men and women -- are being stolen from by
the IP counterfeiters and pirates, are seeing their livelihoods
threatened or eliminated, their incentives to create value and
innovation slashed.

It is time to move beyond our differences on some specific policy
issues and begin the kind of concrete cooperation that is truly the
only way we can reverse the tide of intellectual property theft that
is threatening our economic security and competitiveness, the
livelihoods of our artists and our innovators =96 in essence, our futures.

Neither Europe nor America can solve this on its own. It is in our
mutual interest to take our dialogue on intellectual property rights
and enforcement from the theoretical to the practical, so that we can
leverage our efforts on both sides of the Atlantic to improve
enforcement and prevent IP crime before it happens =96 and give our
economies a fighting chance. U.S.-European trade in goods and
services totalled nearly $680 billion in 2004 =96 you see that we are
in this together.

Now that I=92ve persuaded you (remember now, we are not talking about
beef or airplanes), let me reassure you that we are not starting from
scratch. In fact, we have a great foundation on which to work,
including most specifically both the 2005 EU-US Summit Declaration on
Working Together to Fight Against Global Piracy and Counterfeiting,
and the 2005 G8 Leaders=92 Statement on Reducing IPR Piracy and
Counterfeiting Through More Effective Enforcement.

The U.S. government at the highest levels strongly supports rapid
concrete steps to carry out the lofty promises contained in these two
declarations. We hope to see everyone reinforce our mutual
commitments with actions to beef up cooperation on protection and
enforcement. And we believe the most effective approach will involve
cooperation both with the European Commission and with member states
individually, particularly given the allocation of customs authority
and operational enforcement jurisdictions.

The U.S. sent a broad interagency team to Brussels in mid-October to
meet with the EC and kick off what we hope will be a broad and
multilayered process of fulfilling the promise of the Summit
Statement. The results were encouraging -- trade, tax and IP experts
identified areas for joint anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting actions.

First, we plan to increase cooperation between U.S. and EU Member
States=92 customs authorities to identify and implement the best
possible practices to detect IP infringement and increase seizures of
IP infringing goods.

Second, we want to get our customs authorities trading information on
how to better manage risks and use the most effective techniques to
meet this global challenge, and we want to tighten up our enforcement
coordination on the ground so we can stop pirates and counterfeiters
at our borders.

Third, we will make sure the operational work we launch together is
successful by ensuring we collect needed statistical data in a way we
can both understand.


On a more general note, strengthening communication between the U.S.
and EU parties whose interests are affected by strengthened
intellectual property enforcement will be key to the success of our
joint efforts. Therefore, we hope to work with our EU counterparts to
invite the U.S. and EU citizens who own intellectual property
themselves to become a more integral part of our cooperative IP
enforcement and education efforts.

Finally, we hope to share information regarding IP training programs
and, to the extent possible, coordinate U.S. and EU IP training
opportunities in priority sources of IP infringement =96 like China and
Russia.

Ahah, so now the elephant is out of the closet. Just how are we going
to combat piracy and counterfeiting in the major "problem" areas more
effectively? What can we really do when IP violators are some of the
greatest innovators around?

The answer comes back to teamwork and integration. We like to think
of it as building enforcement alliances with our trading partners, as
building capacity globally, and as integrating the promotion of
innovation and IP protection and competitiveness into our overarching
relations with all of our partners.

A full menu of innovative carrots AND sticks can help advance our
common cause. Most importantly, we all need to do better at showing
our partners, whether geographical safe havens to infringement or
opponents to protection of intellectual property, why it is in THEIR
interest to nurture innovation. How stronger legislative and
regulatory frameworks and enforcement can further their own
development objectives, increase the flow of legitimate funds into
their budgetary coffers, and help them reach their own good
governance goals.

We can make better use of the "sticks" available to us through the
WTO and other international bodies. In this vein, the U.S., joined by
Switzerland and Japan, last week filed a formal "transparency
request" seeking more information from the Chinese government on
their enforcement of intellectual property rights. We will be
discussing this and many other of our broader concerns with China
directly later this week and next at our Ambassador=92s IP "Roundtable"
and Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade IP Meeting. Wider support
from the EU and member states would be helpful.

We can also ensure that the WTO accession process is meaningful. On
that front, we are pushing hard in our accession talks and through a
U.S.-Russia IPR Working Group for improvements in Russia=92s IP
enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting. It would be useful for
us to cooperatively address this mutual objective, given the growing
volume of pirated and counterfeit goods originating in Russia and
adversely affecting both U.S. and European interests.

It would also be useful to work with the EU and its Member States to
reinforce domestic mechanisms and programs addressing piracy and
counterfeiting.

We will be continuing to do the same domestically and
internationally. In fact, a week from today the State Department will
join other key U.S. agencies at the National Chamber of Commerce to
recognize the accomplishments of the first year of the
Administration=92s STOP! Initiative =96 Stop Organized Trade in
Counterfeiting and Piracy =96 and to highlight how we will further
implement STOP!=92s broad agenda in its second year.

Which brings me back to where I started. At its heart, STOP! is about
building sometimes non-traditional alliances between our agencies and
with other nations in order to protect citizens and innovators =96 be
they commercial, cultural, or consumers =96 from the harmful effects of
IP crime. I know Europe wants to do the same. Your constituents and
ours deserve our cooperation in making this protection stronger. The
Transatlantic Policy Network and its members can help make this
happen. Thank you.





Released on November 9, 2005

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************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
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Tel: +41 22 791 6727

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