U.S. takes first step to punish Ukraine for flagrant CD intellectual property theft
=”mso-fareast-font-family: ‘MS Mincho'”>KYIV, Apr. 6 (Ukrainian News) – The United States On Friday will cancel part of Ukraine’s import privileges due to its poor performance against audio and video piracy, a U.S. trade official told a press conference.
According to assistant U.S. trade representative on issues of services, investments, and intellectual property Joseph Papovich, the cancellation of zero import duty rates cannot be considered a serious punishment for Ukraine, since it is being stripped of privileges rather being hit with serious customs sanctions.
Certain groups of Ukrainian goods have a zero import duty in the U.S. because Ukraine has the status of a non-market economy.
The U.S. government does not intend to introduce customs sanctions against Ukraine for at least another month because it hopes that Ukraine will solve the problem of media piracy, Papovich said.
At the same time, the Ukrainian side says that the cancellation of zero import duty rates will cost $8 million.
Papovich noted that Ukraine has reduced the production of pirated audio and video production, but not sufficiently, because U.S. experts continue to discover pirated Ukrainian production on Ukrainian, European, and U.S. markets.
In mid-March, the U.S. announced that it would levy trade sanctions if Ukraine did not take effective measures to stop the production and distribution of pirated production within three months.
One of the U.S.’s present requirements is the passage of a Ukrainian law to increase control over the production and distribution of audio and video production.
The US insists that Ukraine remains the largest producer of pirated audio and video production in the world, annually exporting millions of dollars worth of CDs.
Since it began its battle against piracy, Ukraine has shut down five production plants that the U.S. suspected of producing and distributing pirated production. Those plants, however, were never legally proven to be behind Ukraine’s large-scale underground CD production business.
