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New Study Details High-Tech Industry’s False CAFTA Promises
May 10, 2005
WashTech News
Limited Export Market and Wrong Target for Anti-Piracy
Washington DC - A groundbreaking new study, released today by technology unions and inventors, details the U.S. high-tech industry’s false claims about the ability of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to boost exports, create jobs, and increase intellectual property protections are false.
The report, “The Real Pirates of the Caribbean: U.S. High-Tech Industry’s False CAFTA Promises,” found that despite industry arguments, sales to all CAFTA countries comprise little more than one percent of U.S. high-tech exports. Neither U.S. industry nor the administration has identified high-tech piracy in Central America as a significant problem for significant enforcement, but it is clear that after 11 years of NAFTA, Mexico’s intellectual piracy problems have increased greatly, the report documents.
Ian Chan Hodges of the American Ingenuity Alliance (AIA) noted that many of the high-tech firms lobbying for CAFTA because of its intellectual property provisions are simultaneously urging Congress to undermine the IP rights of inventors within the United States.
Ronald Riley, an independent inventor in the U.S, agreed with Hodges.
“It is ironic and hypocritical that the supporters of CAFTA want to increase their IP rights in Central America while they are undermining the IP rights of inventors in the United States,” he said.
The politically-powerful high-tech industry, lead by Microsoft, has launched an aggressive campaign to win passage of the CAFTA trade deal, and Congressional hearings started on the controversial trade agreement last month. A vote could come as early as June.
“High-tech workers are facing a crisis today with seeing their jobs exported overseas, increased job insecurity and downward pressure on wages. Microsoft’s support of CAFTA only erodes domestic jobs and does nothing to create fair trade policies to protect U.S. workers,” said Marcus Courtney, president of WashTech, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. “The industry is misleading Congress and the country with its false CAFTA promises.”
The report also proves that controversial provisions in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act would become part of an international agreement where the rights of copyright holders are favored over those of users. For example, CAFTA criminalizes unknowing, unintentional copyright circumvention and would impose criminal penalties on unknowing end users of pirated materials.
About AIA, SPEEA and WashTech
The American Ingenuity Alliance is a national initiative working to protect the fruits of American ingenuity so that inventors can fully exercise their constitutional intellectual property rights and, in turn, these rights can then be utilized to build innovative enterprises and to forge an anchor for good jobs in the United States.
Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA-IFPTE Local 2001) represents more than 21,500 engineers, technicians and professionals in the U.S. and is a local union of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
WashTech is a local union of the Communications Workers of America and is actively organizing high-tech workers in the United States.
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