Brussels, 22/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a joint press release, the Confederation of European Business (UNICE) and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America reaffirmed their support for the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) and called on European and American CEOs “to keep this important channel of communication and action open”. UNICE and the US Chamber of Commerce have agreed to coordinate their work in a number of areas, where effective European and American cooperation “will clearly benefit the transatlantic market and the global economy”: - regulatory cooperation, by strengthening the role of the Regulatory Cooperation Forum; - competition and innovation; - the legal environment: the improvement of the legal environment of the transatlantic market would “eliminate sources of legal uncertainties”, discourage the rise of “litigious mentalities and class action proposals”, and “reform faulty and costly legal systems”; - investment climate, by fighting protectionist tendencies and foreign investment restriction legislations on both sides of the Atlantic; - the conclusion of an “ambitious” agreement as part of the Doha negotiations allowing a reduction in tariffs, the elimination of non-tariff barriers, the elimination of restrictions on services trade and contributing to trade facilitation; - energy dialogue, concentrating on energy security and efficiency, and the development of energy saving technologies; - intellectual property, by supporting and fostering on-going efforts to develop an effective transatlantic mechanism to combat counterfeiting and piracy, and including cooperation between relevant enforcement and market surveillance agencies in Europe and the US.
The EU-US common action strategy against piracy and counterfeiting, launched on 21 June (see EUROPE 9214 and 9216) has been warmly welcomed by European and American business people and industrialists. In a joint press release, UNICE, the US Chamber of Commerce, the TABD and no fewer than 17 European and US associations for the defence of business interests welcomed the “sign of political determination” given by European and American leaders. “Efficient and effective intellectual property enforcement would not only work to the benefit of the developed countries. The economies of many developing countries depend on inward investment for the manufacture of products based on intellectual property. This much-needed investment is seriously threatened by counterfeiting and piracy,” stresses the press release.
In a separate press release, the French Anti-Counterfeiting Association (Unifab) welcomes the determination of American and European leaders “to associate with the industry in this strategy” and to foster a partnership between the public and the private sectors, notably in order to exchange information and establish networks, associations and organisations of holders of intellectual property rights in third countries (particularly China and Russia). Unifab points out that seizures of counterfeit products at EU borders increased tenfold between 1998 and 2004, and have doubled at US borders since 2001.