Thailand disappointed with unchanged status on Washington’s Priority Watch List
BANGKOK, May 3 (TNA) -- Disappointed over an unchanged and an improvement from Washington’s Priority Watch List (PWL), announced recently by the US Trade Representative (USTR), the Commerce Ministry will ask the Royal Thai Police Bureau to more strictly enforcing and suppressing violations of US intellectual property rights in the kingdom, said Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot.
The USTR in its report released on April 30, maintained Thailand on its PWL for 2010 which has been unchanged since 2007 but Mr Alongkorn said an OCR (Out-of-Cycle Review) on Thailand’s status could be conducted within the next six months.
Saying that he was disappointed over the ranking, Mr Alongkorn reiterated that the Thai government has attached importance on intellectual property rights protection and has continuously suppress violators in the past, the government, therefore, plans to write a letter to USTR and enquire about the country’s status which was kept unchanged for 2010.
For example, there was a total of 7,613 cases of property rights violations in 2009 while officials seized more than five million pieces of counterfeit products which was evidence that Thai authorities did not sit idly, he said.
Suppression carried out by the Commerce Ministry presently could have been slowed down due to persisting anti-government protest, said Mr Alongkorn, adding that his ministry would request the Royal Thai Police Bureau to accelerate on suppressing violators of intellectual property rights.
The US is one of Thailand’s principal trading partners. Two-way trade in 2009 was valued about Bt800 billion of which Thailand enjoyed more than Bt200 billion in trade surplus.
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Thailand disappointed with unchanged status on Washington’s Priority Watch List
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90 tons of pirated goods, worth about Bt2 bn destroyed
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
90 tons of pirated goods, worth about Bt2 bn destroyed
Photo Watcharachai Klaipong
Thai authorities used bulldozers to destroy more than 600,000 pirated goods, worth about Bt2.2 billion, in a ceremony at the Crime Suppression Division headquarters on Wednesday.
The ceremony was presided over by Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Polabutr.Alongkorn said the bulldozers destroyed a total of 613,374 products including game machines, mobile phones, watches, shoes, CDs and DVDs. The products weighed about 90 tons and were worth Bt2.265 billion.
This is the third ceremony held to destroying pirated goods so far this year, the minister said.
The ceremony was witnessed by celebrities, singers, movie stars and owners of the violated brands.
The destruction of the pirated products is aimed at preventing the pirated goods from being resold on the market, Alongkorn said, adding that the ceremony showed the transparency of the procedure.
The destruction is in line with the World Trade Organisation's Trade Related Intellectual Properties Agreement, to which Thailand and 152 other countries are signatories.
Siam City Cement Public Company will use the Geocycle system of the incinerator at its Saraburi factory to deal with the destroyed products so that the material can be reused."Slavery is the daughter of darkness; an ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction; ambition and intrigue take advantage of the credulity and inexperience of men who have no political, economic or civil knowledge. They mistake pure illusion for reality, license for freedom, treason for patriotism, vengeance for justice."-Simón Bolívar
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