Brasília - Brazil presented the United States with a report summarizing all the actions the country has been developing to combat piracy. The report, which contains over 30 pages, could persuade the Americans not to impose sanctions on Brazil, in case they judge that Brazil is not complying with the Intellectual Property Protection Law. The Deputy US Trade Representative, Peter Allgeier, received the document yesterday (22) and delivered a report on the measures already adopted by the Americans.
Brazil stands to lose around US$ 2 billion in exports, if the United States, in a gesture of "retaliation" for failure to respect intellectual property, decides to remove the country from its General System of Preferences. This amount reflects the value of everything that Brazil exports duty-free to the United States.
Allgeier refrained from making a preliminary judgment of the Brazilian report. He stated that the document will be analyzed by US officials, as well as by private enterprise, before any impressions on the report are emitted. "We shall return to the United States and make recommendations on how to act from here on. It is a very important issue for both countries," he said.
For Ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney, Subsecretary for Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Relations, there is no reason for the United States to impose sanctions when it comes to piracy. "The Congress has undertaken efforts to combat piracy, and we are taking innumerous steps with respect to combatting piracy," he affirmed.
The report presented by the Brazilian government includes measures suggested by the Joint Congressional Investigation Commission (CPMI) on Piracy, as well as changes in Brazilian law that characterize this kind of activity as a crime. According to Hugueney, Brazil is one of the countries with the most modern laws concerning intellectual property.
The Brazilian Ambassador said that the American delegation did not give a date for communicating the result of the analysis of the report. "We expect that it will be ready shortly."
According to Hugueney, one of the future measures to be instituted by the Brazilian government is the creation of a Council to Combat Piracy, within the ambit of the federal government, but with participation by representatives of civil society and private enterprise. In Allgeier's opinion, this proposal could represent "the difference" for Brazil, when it comes to the fight against piracy and the preservation of intellectual property.
Luiz Paulo Barreto, Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, estimates that piracy inflicts annual losses of US$ 1.39 billion (R$ 4 billion) on the Brazilian economy. In some sectors, according to the Secretary, for each street vendor who sells black market products, six to ten jobs are lost.
The number of contraband CD's in Brazil has also escalated. In 1997, 3% of the CD's sold in the country were contraband. This share attained 60% in 2003. Data also indicate that Paraguay imports 140 million blank CD's per year, for a domestic consumption of 3 million. "So, if the domestic market is not this big, it means that these blank CD's are being used for piracy," he believes.
For Barreto, piracy directly affects Brazilian musicians, since 72% of the CD's consumed in the country are Brazilian music. The Secretary offers a comparison with 1997. According to him, 21 platinum records - representing sales of over 500 thousand copies - were awarded then, as against only 4 in 2002.
According to Barreto, the consequences of piracy, such as six thousand commercial establishments shut down and 60 thousand people out of work, are sad for the country. He wants piracy to be treated as a serious crime. "Piracy must be assigned the same importance we give to other more serious crimes, such as drug trafficking, smuggling, and arms dealing, because it is also part of this network of transnational crime," he contends.
Agência Brasil
Reporter: Gabriela Guerreiro
Translator: David Silberstein
09/23/2004
