The Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (Tifa), signed between the United States and Pakistan on June 27, 2003, appears to be in jeopardy following the publication of the special 301 report on Pakistan by the US-based International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA).
According to the report, available here, IIPA has recommended that Pakistan should be designated as a Priority Foreign Country (PFC), which was one step away from the penal duties, suspension of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSPs) and other trade related benefits, which could play havoc with Pakistan's textile industry and export lifeline.
The report goes on to say that the government of Pakistan has been ignoring the problem of the copyright piracy, "and likely will continue to do nothing to stem piracy unless the US elevates Pakistan to bring the severity of this problem to the Pakistani government's attention."
If the Pakistan government continued to turn a blind eye to the piracy concerns, the US should consider all possible avenues to address the intolerable situation, including suspending the GSP benefits or any other benefits Pakistan received through other trade programmes, the report said.
The report, in its overview of the key problems, pointed out that Pakistan was one of the world's leading producers and exporters of the pirated optical discs (CDs, DVDs, VCDs, CD-ROMs) of the copyrighted material (sound recordings, motion pictures, business software and published materials).
Eight known facilities in Pakistan produced upwards of 180 million discs in 2003, nearly all illegal, and most being exported around the world to at least 46 other countries, it added.
The report further pointed out the Pakistan government, which met the US government and the pirate industry several times in 2003, took no serious steps to curtail the production or the export of the pirated product.
Book piracy also remained a serious problem in Pakistan, and the government must address other piracy phenomena (eg cable piracy, end-user piracy of the business software), the report said.
In 2001, the IIPA filed a GSP petition against Pakistan in response to the frightening growth of the production of optical discs in the country, the report said, adding though the petition remained pending in 2003, Pakistan and US signed "Tifa", which paved the way for more serious trade discussions.
It was crucial in the context of the larger trade relationship, and in view of the IIPA's pending GSP petition that Pakistan lived up to its obligations to provide adequate and effective copyright protection and take immediate steps to eradicate piracy in all forms, including optical disc piracy.
Pakistan's enforcement system failed to "prevent infringements" and to provide "remedies that constitute a deterrent to further infringements," as required by the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (Trips).
The report said despite skyrocketing of production, distribution and export of the pirate optical discs, Pakistan had not initiated any action (criminal, civil or administrative) against its fast growing pirate producers.
THE REPORT SUGGESTS THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN 2004:
-- Pass and implement an effective optical disc law (or temporary order) to enable control over optical disc production, including monitoring and control on imports of production equipment and raw materials (including optical grade polycarbonate), as well as requirements to use unique source identifiers (SID code) to track the location of production.
-- Shut down known production facilities (if necessary, by temporary order), pending their ability to demonstrate that they have licences to produce legitimate materials (whereupon supervised access to the plant could be granted so as to permit the legitimate production). Licensing documents aimed at providing legitimate manufacture should be forwarded to interested private parties to ensure the legitimacy of the licensing documents; right holders should be permitted to visit the optical disc plants and obtain exemplars of the discs.
-- Stop exports of the pirated optical discs and other copyrighted materials from Pakistan.
-- Conduct effective anti-piracy enforcement actions with active Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) involvement; establish an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) task force within the FIA.
-- Combat other forms of the piracy that hurt the domestic markets, including book piracy, cable piracy and end-user piracy.
-- Issue a directive to the courts on the seriousness of copyright crime and the need to impose deterrent penalties in the cases of commercial piracy.
-- Develop a group of the prosecutors and judges, familiar with copyright, including selective training on bringing copyright cases and deterrent enforcement practices.
-- Pass a law to strengthen maximum criminal fines and to implement the WIPO "Internet" treaties and join those treaties.
-- Conduct a public anti-piracy awareness campaign.
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