US Elected Officials: IP Rights, Tech Markets Key For Russian WTO Accession

The top members of the United States Congress for international trade policy have put intellectual property rights and information technology market access at the top of demands for Russia’s impending accession to the World Trade Organization.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (Democrat, Montana) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah), along with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (Republican, Michigan) and Ranking Member Sander Levin (Democrat, Michigan) sent a 29 October letter to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

The four cited particular concerns about Russia’s commitment to IP rights protection and to joining the WTO Information Technology Agreement.

As stated in a congressional press release, the letter called for:

“• Russia’s protection of intellectual property rights, which are critical to U.S. industry and jobs;
• Recent reports questioning Russia’s commitment to join the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), one of the most successful WTO agreements, providing duty free treatment to a vast array of information and communications technology (ICT) products, with tremendous benefits to the innovative U.S. high tech sector as well as the many U.S. industries that use ICT to enhance their productivity and competitiveness at home and abroad;
• Russia’s actions blocking market access for U.S. agricultural products through unscientific health and safety requirements; and
• Russia’s auto investment regime’s impact on U.S. autos and auto parts companies, and their workers.”

The letter is available here.