[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8376]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          COMMENDING THE USTR

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise today because, as you may know, 
for several years now there have been ongoing negotiations between the 
State of Israel and the Office of the United States Trade 
Representative, USTR, regarding Israel's protections of U.S. 
intellectual property rights. I commend the USTR for so vigorously 
protecting these very valuable assets to the U.S. economy. However, 
what has caused my colleagues and I concern has been the treatment of 
Israel in this process; a process that we hope will become more 
transparent. This year, I was joined by Senators Schumer and Wyden on a 
letter to the U.S. Trade Representative expressing our hope that the 
positive steps Israel has taken, particularly in the context of how 
many of our other trading partners have acted, would be granted the 
recognition it deserves. Unfortunately, when this year's Special 301 
report was released, Israel was put on par with countries such as China 
and Russia while other countries, which have little or no intellectual 
property protections, were given a much less egregious designation.
  Ron Dermer, the Israel Embassy's Minister for Economic Affairs, 
recently stated that ``countries with a record of much more severe 
breaches of intellectual property than those attributed to Israel, are 
not included in these lists.''
  I do look forward to continuing our work with the Office of the USTR 
on this issue and to make sure that those countries that are working 
towards our mutual goals are met with the recognition and support from 
our government they deserve.

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