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Prepared Statement of Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
I am pleased to have the opportunity to convey to the Subcommittee the views of the Office of the United States Trade Representative concerning H.R. 989, the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1995.
There can be no question of the importance of strong copyright protection in promoting the creation and dissemination of works of art, literature, music, film, photography, drama and architecture. The laws of the United States afford strong protection to the rights of its creators and artists; our laws also provide for flexible, market-responsive means of transferring and exploiting these rights.
This system of copyright protection has contributed immeasurably to the richness of our culture. It has also provided a firm basis for the development of a dynamic copyright industry that has made the United States a world leader in supplying informational materials and entertainment products around the globe. Because our films, music, books, and software are attractive to consumers around the globe, our copyright industries consistently generate a trade surplus for the United States .
We must also recognize the importance of copyright industries to our economy. Our copyright -based industries employ thousands of workers in the United States and are employing new workers at almost three times the annual rat%Qf the economy as a whole. These U.S. industries contribute over >^*billion in foreign sales, more than any other U.S. industry except agriculture and aircraft, and are growing at twice the annual rate of the economy.
Recognizing the significance of the U.S. copyright industries in our international trade, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in conjunction with other U.S. Government agencies and the Commerce and State Departments, has given high priority to raising the level of protection afforded to copyrighted works around the globe, and to securing market access for these works.
We negotiated the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPs Agreement) which established strong international disciplines in an area of great importance to the U.S. economy and was one of the most significant achievements of the Uruguay Round. At the same time, we continue to make effective use of the Special 301 process and other bilateral channels to advance our goals. This year, we concluded a far-reaching agreement with China on the enforcement