The Bahamas is risking trade benefits with its neighbor to the north, by not clamping down on copyright infringements, violations that cost the United States $9.2 billion last year.
In less than three months, the United States Trade Representatives will decide whether the country will be taken off its U.S. copyright watch list for failing to protect original works.
This month, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), released a set of recommendations called Special 301 which related to a part of the American trade law that requires the U.S. Trade Representative to identify countries that deny adequate protection for intellectual property rights (IPR) or that deny fair and equitable market access for U.S. entities which rely on IPR.
The Bahamas was placed on the Special 301 watch list last year and again this month.
Maria Strong, vice president and general counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based IIPA, said the Bahamas could be elevated on that list and would face trade restrictions as a result.
“If it were to be elevated to the highest level, investigations would ensue which could place [the Bahamas’] trade benefits in jeopardy,” she said. “It’s on step three now and we are recommending that it go to step two and if things do not improve it could go to step one.”
Ms. Strong said the Bahamas was placed on the list because of its lack of legal reform and compulsory licence barring cable operators from re-transmitting television programming.
Ms. Strong said the Bahamian government has not done enough to show that it is committed to cracking down on such copyright infringements.
For now, all signs point to Cable Bahamas being chiefly responsible for these violations, according to Ms. Strong. Cable Bahamas is the only cable operator in the Bahamas. In 2000, the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas accused Cable Bahamas of illegally using its satellite uplinks to provide Internet services. The findings of the matter were never revealed.
Ms. Strong said being placed on the watch list could threaten the unilateral benefits the United States offers the Bahamas under the Caribbean Basin Initiative program.
That program is designed to enhance the economic relationship between the United States and the countries in this region. It was created in 1983, and provides certain additional trade benefits to countries like the Bahamas.
Ms. Strong said issues regarding copyright infringements in the Bahamas have been outstanding for more than a year.
Her association is advocating that the Bahamas be highlighted as a country that is uncooperative in this regard.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance claims the United States lost $9.2 billion through copyright breaches in countries like the Bahamas in 2002.
Ms. Strong added that the government of the Bahamas had promised the United States government to take certain steps to address the problem, but failed to do so.
IIPA placed a further 33 countries on a standard watch list, while seven other countries were described as deserving further attention.
Minister of Financial Services and Investments Allyson Maynard-Gibson told reporters recently that the government was addressing the IIPA concerns with a view of protecting the reputation of the Bahamas as a country that protects copyrights.
Cable Bahamas officials, meanwhile, were for days unavailable for comment on the matter.
By Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal
