I have the honor to refer to my letter of The situation has not changed. I, therefore, take once again the liberty of drawing this matter to your attention. Accept, Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration. His Excellency Mr. Joseph C. Petrone Ambassador Permanent Representative Permanent Mission of the United States of America to the 11, route de Pregny 1292 Chambésy Arpad Bogsch Enclosed you will find copies of letters that I and other Members of Congress wrote to Mr. N. Shaw Smith, Acting Assistant Secretary, International Organization Affairs (on November 20, 1987) and W. Allen Wallis, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (on December 28, 1987). The letters deal with the important issue of United States contributions to the World Intellectual Property Organization, which is the secretariat for a number of intellectual property agreements including the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. As you know, the House has passed and the Administration strongly supports U.S. adherence to Berne. The first letter, for some inexplicable reason, never received a response. The second was responded to on February 4, 1988, by J. Edward Fox, Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs. However, the second letter did not adequately answer the key questions posed. That is, if it is in our interest to join and belong to the Berne Convention, should we not pay our annual membership dues? And should Congress vote to join the Union, knowing full well that we may not pay our membership dues? I look forward to an expeditious response to these questions and a full accounting of our arrearages to the W.I.P.O. advance, thank you for your time and cooperation. Sincerely, In Encl. ROBERT W. KASTENMEIER Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties and the United States Department of State Washington. D.C. 20520 July 7, 1988 Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing in response to your letter of June 21, 1988 to Secretary Shultz regarding United States contributions to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with particular reference to U.S. contributions arising out of our proposed adherence to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. I am pleased to inform you that, in spite of our appropriation shortfall, our FY 1988 obligations to WIPO have been met. In this connection, we have paid approximately $423,000 to the Paris Union, $37,000 to the Nice Union, $203,000 to the Strasbourg Union and $125,000 to fulfill our obligations to the Patent Cooperation Treaty. We are, however, in arrears to WIPO for approximately $288,000 resulting from Gramm-Rudman-Hollings withholdings in fiscal year 1986 and appropriations shortfalls in fiscal years 1985 and 1987. As you have noted, the Administration strongly supports U.S. adherence to the Berne Convention. We agree unreservedly with your statement on May 10, 1988, when you introduced the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, that this convention is "the most important copyright treaty in the world". Evidence of the outstanding preparatory work regarding the legislation carried out by you and your Subcommittee is the unanimous vote of approval in the House. The Department would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for your leadership on this issue. Assuming accession to the Berne Convention by the end of 1988, our assessed contribution of $245,000 for calendar year 1989 would be due on January 1, 1989. In anticipation of accession to this Convention, we requested funds in both fiscal years 1988 and 1989. The Honorable Robert W. Kastenmeier, Chairman, Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and House of Representatives. 2 In regard to our current arrearages to WIPO, we continue to recognize our international legal obligations and I hope, when the budgetary climate permits, that all parties concerned will be able to work out a favorable method for dealing with this issue. However, the present budgetary situation makes it difficult for us to fund fully even our current assessments. The Budget Summit Compromise placed overall constraints on the Administration's FY 1989 budget requests. The two percent increase for the Contributions to International Organizations account is in line with these overall constraints. In light of this situation, we did our best to allocate the limited funds in a way which will best serve U.S. interests. We are cognizant of the important role of WIPO and consequently are requesting full funding for this organization in FY 1989. Let me express my appreciation for your concerns. We look forward to working with you and other members of Congress on the challenge we face in assuring that the U.S. continues to have a strong position in WIPO and other international organizations as well. Between the two World Wars it became gradually clear that there was no longer any real hope that the then existing conventions of the Berne Union1 would become global in The views expressed herein are the views of the author and not necessarily those of the U.S. Copyright Office. 1 Before World War I the Berne Union adopted the following texts: Berne Convention, Additional Article, and Final Protocol (1886), 141 |