Russian Intellectual Property Violations Must Be Addressed at G-8 Summit
Russian Intellectual Property Violations Must Be Addressed at G-8 Summit
Washington, DC- Congresswoman Watson today released a letter sent to President Bush requesting that he address Russia's weak enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) at the upcoming Group of 8 Summit. The letter also urged the President to withhold his support for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization (WT0) until the nation takes appropriate steps to improve its IPR enforcement.
Representatives Tom Lantos (D-CA-12), Ranking Member of the House International Relations Committee, and Darrell Issa (R-CA-49) also signed the letter.
"The cost of Russian piracy in 2005 to the United States' creative and patent community was over $1.7 billion, with losses topping $6.8 billion over the last five years," wrote Congresswoman Watson. "We anticipate these costs would far outweigh the benefits of the liberalized trade that would come with Russia's accession [to the WTO]."
The complete text of the letter follows:
July 14, 2006
President George Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush:
We write to respectfully request that you use the Group of 8 summit in St. Petersburg this weekend to earnestly speak about intellectual property rights violations in Russia and their impact on the world economy. We are concerned about an impending announcement of America's willingness to accept Russia into the World Trade Organization without proper consideration of its failure to enforce intellectual property rights. We ask you to insist on strong intellection property rights protections in Russia before allowing the next step toward its accession to the World Trade Organization.
The cost of Russian piracy in 2005 to the United States' creative and patent community was over $1.7 billion, with losses topping $6.8 billion over the last five years. We anticipate these costs would far outweigh the benefits of the liberalized trade that would come with Russia's accession. Russia has been on the USTR's Priority Watch List for intellectual property violations for nine straight years without showing any significant signs of improvement.
Russia continues to pirate goods and export them around the world, thus saturating not only its own market with illegal goods but also spreading them across the globe. Russia allows optical disc plants to produce illegal material on its own government property. And it has not found a way to effectively criminalize IP pirates, whether they participate as plant owners, producers or consumers. We believe Russia should not be admitted into the World Trade Organization until they develop and successfully enact policies to curb its rampant piracy.
We would like to seriously caution against taking Russian promises without any evidence or precedent that they will follow through on them. As you well know, China's admittance into the World Trade Organization did nothing to increase its intellectual property rights enforcement.
We urge you to ensure that Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization will not take place until it takes appropriate steps to assure the United States, and the rest of the world, that it respects intellectual property laws. Please utilize this important summit to reinforce to the American people your commitment to protecting America's creations.
Sincerely,
Diane E. Watson, MC
Darrell E. Issa, MC
Tom Lantos, MC
cc: Ambassador Susan C. Schwab
http://www.house.gov/list/press/ca33_watson/060714.html