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News Releases
No. 48/06
June 19, 2006
EMBARGOED MONDAY JUNE 19TH, 6:00 P.M. EASTERN TIME
EU-US SUMMIT: EU AND US STEP UP JOINT FIGHT AGAINST COUNTERFEITING
US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, European
Commission Vice
 President and Commissioner for
Industry
Gunter Verheugen (pictured at left) and EU
Trade Commissioner
Peter
Mandelson (pictured at right) will on Tuesday, June 20, launch a joint EU-US
action program to tackle global intellectual property
piracy. The program was conceived in 2005 and will be
endorsed by the
EU-US Summit in Vienna on June 21. The
joint strategy is an important reinforcement of the
global fight against counterfeiting and intellectual
property theft. It is the first EU-US joint enforcement program of its kind.
EU Commission Vice President and Industry Commissioner
Günter Verheugen said: “Our industry won’t be able to
win the global race with rock-bottom prices and low
quality. The only way forward is innovation, invention
and quality. When ideas or brands and products are
pirated, ripped-off and counterfeited, this strategy is
doomed. This is why the EU and the US have joined forces
to combat the pirating of products in a more effective
way.”
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: “The issue
of intellectual property protection goes to the heart of
the ability of the EU and the US to compete in the
global economy because our high-value goods have strong
intellectual content. Stepping up the enforcement fight
required a joint strategy and it needed to have some
teeth.”
Among the key EU-US proposals are commitments to:
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Closer customs co-operation including joint border
enforcement actions where EU-US
customs officials will cooperate to tackle intellectual
piracy.
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Joint enforcement in third countries, including the
creation of teams of EU and US
diplomats in third country embassies specially tasked
with data- and intelligence-sharing and joint surveillance responsibilities.
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Strongly increased collaboration with the private
sector, which has strongly advocated
improved intellectual property protection as the key to
EU competitiveness.
Initial efforts will focus on working with China and
Russia. But the EU and the US also have major concerns
in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The
program aims to help emerging markets reinforce their
own efforts to tackle intellectual property theft.
The protection of intellectual property rights is not
just an issue for developed countries. Developing
countries that tolerate the existence of a parallel
black economy in their market quickly lose the
confidence of vital foreign investors and services
traders and the technology transfer these bring. They
also undermine the development of innovative and
creative businesses in their own economy. Everyone in
the global economy benefits when intellectual property
rights are secured.
The number of counterfeit items seized at EU borders has
increased by more than 1000% between 1998 and 2004,
rising from ten million in 1998 to over 103 million in
2004. In the 1980s, 70% of counterfeiting concerned
luxury goods. In 2004, more than 4.4 million items of
fake foodstuffs and drinks were seized at European Union
borders, a growth of almost 200% since 1998.
Counterfeiting affects almost every area of industrial
manufacturing: including fake airplane parts, car parts,
electrical appliances, medicines and toys.
The trade in counterfeit medicines is also growing fast:
it accounted for almost 10% of world trade in medicines
2004. Last year 800,000 fake medicines were seized at
European borders. Most of these fake drugs are headed
for the world’s poorest countries.
Further Contact Information
Press and Public Diplomacy
Delegation of the European Commission
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.eurunion.org/PressRoom
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766
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