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7.

AUSTRALIA

Protection of U.S. Intellectual Property

Patents, trademarks, designs and copyrights are protected by Australian law. Australia is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Universal Copyright Convention, the Geneva Phonograms Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Australian law is broad and protects new technology, including genetic engineering.

Patents: Patents are protected by the Patents Act, which offers coverage for 16 years, subject to renewal fees. Trade secrets can be protected by contract. Designs can be initially protected by registration under the Design Act for one year, which may be extended for six and five years respectively, upon application.

Trademarks: Trade names and marks may be protected for seven years and renewed at will by registration under the Trademark Act. Once used, trade names and marks may also, without registration, be protected by common law. Protection often also extends to parallel importing; that is, imports of legally manufactured products ordered by someone other than a person or firm having exclusive distribution rights in Australia.

Copyrights:

Copyrights are protected under the Copyright Act. Works do not require registration and copyright automatically subsists in original literary, artistic, musical and dramatic works, film and sound recordings. Computer programs are legally considered to be literary. Copyright protection is for the life of the author plus 50 years.

The Australian Copyright Act provides protection

regarding public performances in hotels and clubs, and against video piracy and unauthorized third-country imports. Although U.S. motion-picture companies have previously indicated that they would like tighter protection to reduce unauthorized public performances and video taping, no new complaints have been noted for over two years. The Attorney General's Department monitors the effectiveness of industry bodies and enforcement agencies in curbing the illegal use of copyrighted material.

Data on the incidence of piracy of copyrighted material is not available, although industry sources indicate that the crime is less prevalent in Australia than in the United States. Close monitoring by customs has virtually eliminated pirated books from the market. Press reports indicate that commercial pirating is prosecuted. Industry sources complain that copying of videos, tapes, and computer software for personal use is widespread, but difficult to monitor.

New Technologies: Illegal infringement of technology does not appear to be a significant problem. Australia has its own software industry and accords protection to foreign and domestic production. Australia manufactures only basic integrated circuits and semiconductor chips. Its geographic isolation precludes most U.S. satellite signal piracy. Australian networks, which pay for the rights to U.S.

AUSTRALIA

television programs, jealously guard against infringement. Cable television is not yet established in Australia.

8. Worker Rights *

a. Right of Association

Workers in Australia fully enjoy and practice the rights to associate, to organize and to bargain collectively; rights enshrined in the Arbitration Act of 1904. Australian workers also enjoy the right to strike, which is well-established in practice. Strikes are frequent although generally of short duration. In general, industrial disputes are resolved either through direct employer-union negotiations or under the auspices of the various state and federal industrial relations commissions whose mandate includes resolution of disputes through conciliation and arbitration. Australia has also ratified the major International Labor Organization conventions regarding worker rights.

b. Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

Approximately 48 percent of the Australian workforce belongs to a union. The industrial relations system, which operates through a series of independent government-supported tribunals, gives unions more power and opportunity than their counterparts have in the United States.

C. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

Compulsory and forced labor is prohibited and not practiced in Australia.

d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children

The minimum age for the employment of children varies in Australia according to industry apprenticeship programs, but an effective floor is maintained on the age at which children may be employed full time by the enforced requirement that children attend school until age 15.

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Although Australia technically has a single minimum wage, it is of no practical significance. Instead, various minimum wages in individual industries are specified in industry "awards" approved by state or federal tribunals.

As a result of the power of their unions, Australian workers in productive and other industries such as petroleum, food, chemicals, metals, machinery, electrical, transportation equipment, wholesale trade, and general manufacturing enjoy hours, conditions, health, safety standards and wages that are among the best and highest in the world.

f. Rights in Sectors with U.S. Investment

Most of Australia's industrial sectors enjoy some U.S. investment. Worker rights in all sectors are essentially identical in law and practice and do not differ between domestic and foreign ownership.

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Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business August 1990, Vol. 70, No. 8, Table 13

* Section 8 is an abridged version of Section 6 of the Australian country report included in the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1990, submitted to the Congress January 31, 1991. For a comprehensive discussion of worker rights, please refer to that report.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Key Economic Indicators

(Billions of Renminbi (rmb) Unless otherwise Noted)

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Sources: State Statistical Bureau (SSB) Yearbook and Annual Statistical Communiques on Economic Performance, People's Bank of China Banking Data, World Bank and International Monetary Fund reports, USG trade data, and Embassy estimates.

1/ Source for GNP data for 1988 and 1989 is the IMF's International Financial Statistics. GNP per capita and real per capita GNP growth are calculated using this IMF data. Real GNP

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

growth is based on government statistics. Figures for 1990 are Embassy projections.

2/ In accordance with the material product system (MPS) of national income accounting, GVIO and GVAO figures are calculated on a gross rather than a net basis. They are not directly comparable with GNP and national income figures which are calculated on a net value added basis.

3/ Embassy estimates.

4/ 5/

1988 and 1989 are unofficial Chinese estimates.

M1 and M2 are Embassy estimates based on data released by the central bank. Because of definitional problems, the estimate for M2 is probably more accurate.

6/ Estimates of Gross National Savings as a percent of GNP and Gross Domestic Investment as a percent of GNP for 1988 and 1989 are as estimated by the IMF in January 1989. Actual savings in 1989 were much higher. Figures for 1990 are Embassy estimates. 7/ Figures are for December over December inflation. They differ from official Chinese statistics which show average annual inflation of 18.5 percent for 1988 and 17.8 percent for 1989. 8/ The parallel exchange rate estimate is based on an average of year-end prices of foreign exchange sold at domestic adjustment centers (swap markets).

9/ U.S.-China bilateral trade is based on U.S. Government data. Trade totals are from Chinese Customs data.

1. General Policy Framework

Since the late 1970's China has pursued the twin policies of economic reform and expansion of international economic ties. The government is attempting to blend elements of central planning and market freedom in an economic structure which supports stable, coordinated growth and avoids the dramatic boom/recession cycles of the past ten years. Considerable authority over economic decision-making had been decentralized to local governments and individual enterprises. This had contributed to significant increases in capital investment and industrial production, as well as consumption. Concerns over growing inflationary pressure and the ability of the central government to exercise sufficient macroeconomic control led to the adoption of an austerity program in late 1988. The central government tightened control over investment spending, money supply growth, imports, and prices of a wide range of industrial and consumer goods.

Success in restraining the key elements of overheated growth during 1989 was accompanied by sharp drops in industrial production and retail sales, a severe liquidity shortage, growing unemployment, and increasing tendencies at the local level towards market protectionism. Determined to prevent political and social instability, the government responded with heavy subsidization of failing enterprises and basic personal consumption. Although industrial production began to recover by mid-1990, the government has announced its intention to continue austerity policies for another two or three years and embark on more extensive structural adjustment. This restructuring program is aimed at resolving widespread economic inefficiencies at the micro level. There is intense debate within the government and economic circles over the specific ways to implement this restructuring and the intended results. The principal issue is whether to emphasize

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