Washington has warned Kyiv that the Bush Administration will levy trade sanctions on Ukraine unless effective measures are taken to prevent the manufacture and distribution of pirate audio and video products. Ukraine could lose the US market as a result.
Vice Premier Mykola Zhulynsky declared that Washington might come out with a special statement concerning Ukraine and blocking its WTO membership. The US side addressed a note to Ukraine, he said, claiming that audio products confiscated in Bulgaria and Great Britain were all of Ukrainian manufacture. Mr. Zhulynsky added that the CDs will be examined by Ukrainian and foreign experts, and if their Ukrainian origin is ascertained the guilty parties will be prosecuted under the law. Ukraine also intends to strengthen border controls, because the audio and video products impounded in Bulgaria and the UK might have been transported across Ukraine.
The Vice Premier said Ukraine will soon amend its law on licensing audio and video products, and that he has information to the effect that Ukrainian factories have stopped producing laser compact disks after the enactment of a law making holographic marking of audio products compulsory.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance has placed Ukraine at the top of the list of 58 countries with low standards of protecting intellectual property. Ukraine is followed by Paraguay, China, the Philippines, Uruguay, and Russia, reports Korrespondent.net.
