U.S. Penalizes Ukraine for Abetting 'Piracy'

The Politech mailing list has a note and follow-up on new trade restrictions levied against Ukraine, since they haven't complied with the U.S.'s demand for 'an optical media licensing regime.' John Gilmore's response puts the issue in perspective. Update: 01/03 23:08 GMT by M : The RIAA has a press release about the trade penalties and response to Gilmore.

Comments

More bad logic

[gfxguy]

So your argument is that no one else in the U.S. government, besides military personel, should do their jobs until "the war on terror" is over?

That's ridicules! So the police should stop chasing thieves and rapists until all the murderers are caught? Every one that needs to be doing something about the war is doing it, all the rest have their jobs to do, too.

I don't agree with this policy, but I don't like using the terrorist attack to be a scape-goat for everything else, either.

Karma Whorage

[cscx]

federal register: january 2, 2002 volume 67, number 1
notices
page 120 121
from the federal register online via gpo access wais.access.gpo.gov
docid:fr02ja02 131

office of the united states trade representative

docket no. 301 121

determination of action to increase duties on certain products of
ukraine pursuant to section 301 b : intellectual property laws and
practices of the government of ukraine

agency: office of the united states trade representative.

action: notice

summary: the united states trade representative trade representative
has determined that appropriate action to obtain the elimination of the
acts, policies, and practices of the government of ukraine that result
in the inadequate protection of intellectual property rights includes
the imposition of prohibitive duties on the annexed list of ukrainian
products.

effective dates: a 100 percent ad valorem rate of duty is effective
with respect to the articles of ukraine described in the annex to this
notice that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption
on or after january 23, 2002. in addition, any merchandise subject to
this determination that is admitted to u.s. foreign trade zones on or
after january 23, 2002 must be admitted as "privileged foreign
status".

for further information contact: kira alvarez, office of services,
investment and intellectual property, office of the united states trade
representative 202 395 6864; david birdsey, office of european
affairs, office of the united states trade representative, 202 395
3320; or william busis, office of the general counsel, office of the
united states trade representative, 202 395 3150. for questions
concerning product classification, please contact the general
classification branch, office of regulations and rulings, u.s. customs
service, 202 927 2388, and for questions concerning entries, please
contact yvonne tomenga, program officer, office of trade compliance,
u.s. customs service, 202 927 0133.

supplementary information: in a notice published on april 6, 2001 66
fr 18,346 , the office of the united states trade representative
"ustr" announced the initiation of an investigation under sections
301 to 309 of the trade act of 1974, as amended the trade act ,
regarding the government of ukraine's intellectual property protection
laws and practices, including the government of ukraine's failure to
use existing law enforcement authority to stop the ongoing unauthorized
production of optical media products and failure to enact an optical
media licensing regime that would preclude the piracy of such products.
see 66 fr 18,346 april 6, 2001 . in a notice published on august 10,
2001, ustr announced that the trade representative had determined that
these acts, policies, and practices of ukraine with respect to the
protection of intellectual property rights are unreasonable and burden
or restrict united states commerce and are thus actionable under
section 301 b of the trade act. see 66 fr 42,246 aug. 10, 2001 . the
notice also announced that the trade representative had determined that
appropriate action to obtain the elimination of such acts, policies,
and practices included the suspension of duty free treatment accorded
to products of ukraine under the generalized system of preferences.
the august 10, 2001 notice announced that further action might
include the imposition of prohibitive duties on products of ukraine to
be drawn from a preliminary product list. ustr invited interested
persons to submit written comments and to participate in a public
hearing on september 11, 2001. because the development of the final
product list involved complex and complicated issues that required
additional time, the trade representative determined under section
304 a 3 b of the trade act to extend the investigation by 3 months,
or until december 12, 2001. the public hearing was postponed and held
on september 25, 2001. see 66 fr 48,898 sep. 24, 2001 .
on december 11, 2001, the trade representative determined under
section 304 a 1 b of the trade act that appropriate action under
section 301 b , in addition to the prior suspension of gsp benefits,
included the imposition of 100 percent ad valorem duties on ukrainian
products with an annual trade value of approximately $75 million. the
level of sanctions is based on the level of the burden or restriction
on u.s. commerce resulting from ukraine's inadequate protection of u.s.
intellectual property rights.
the ukrainian parliament was scheduled to vote on an optical disc
licensing odl law on december 20, 2001, and the government of ukraine
assured in writing that it would make best efforts to ensure passage of
the law. in light of these developments, the trade representative
determined under section 305 a 2 a of the trade act that substantial
progress was being made and that a delay was necessary or desirable to
obtain a satisfactory

page 121

solution, and postponed implementation of the action until december 20,
2001.
on december 20, 2001, however, the ukrainian parliament voted down
the odl law. consequently, on that same day the trade representative
announced that he was imposing prohibitive duties on ukrainian products
with an annual trade value of approximately $75 million, and announced
the final product list on the following day.

imposition of prohibitive duties

the trade representative has determined that appropriate action
under section 301 b of the trade act is to impose a 100% ad valorem
rate of duty on the articles of ukraine described in the annex to this
notice, effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from
warehouse, for consumption on or after january 23, 2002. accordingly,
effective january 23, 2002, the harmonized tariff schedule of the
united states hts is hereby modified in accordance with the annex to
this notice. in addition, any merchandise subject to this determination
that is admitted to u.s. foreign trade zones on or after january 23,
2002 must be admitted as "privileged foreign status" as defined in 19
cfr 146.41.
the scope of this action under section 301 is governed by the hts
nomenclature for the preexisting hts subheadings identified in
parentheses for each of the new chapter 99 subheadings in the annex to
this notice. the verbal product descriptions for the new chapter 99
subheadings in the annex are not definitive. issues regarding the
classification of particular products would be decided by the u.s.
customs service under its usual rules and procedures for product
classification.

william l. busis,
chairman, section 301 committee.

annex

the harmonized tariff schedule of the united states hts is
modified by adding in numerical sequence the following superior text
and subheadings to subchapter iii of chapter 99 to the hts. the
subheadings and superior text are set forth in columnar format, and
material in such columns is inserted in the columns of the hts
designated "heading/subheading", "article description", and
"rates of duty 1 general", respectively.