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promotion loans and guarantees.

With the liberalization in Eastern Europe and those countries' outstanding debts to Austria, the Kontrollbank, Austria's export financing agency, has revised its guarantee policy. The most important of the changes implemented in the middle of 1991 in Kontrollbank's export guarantee system is that the previously fixed rates for guarantees now vary according to country risk and the exporter's history of losses. As a result, export guarantees, particularly for shipments to non-OECD countries, are noticeably more expensive. The Austrian Government also decided to be more restrictive in extending soft loans. The Export Fund provides a similar export financing program for small and medium-sized companies with annual export sales of up to AS 100 million. In addition, there are subsidies for exports of grain, dairy products, breeder and dairy cattle, slaughter cattle, and beef.

7. Protection of U.S. Intellectual Property

Austria is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization as well as of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Universal Copyright Convention, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Geneva Phonograms Conventions, and the Brussels Satellite Conventions. In addition, it signed the Budapest Treaty on International Recognition of the Deposit of Micro Organisms for the Purpose of Patent Procedure.

The Austrian Government is not particularly active on intellectual property protection issues because Austrian products have not been frequent victims of counterfeiting, piracy, or patent infringements. result, there is no domestic industrial lobby pushing for stronger intellectual property rights.

As a

Austria has a law against unfair competition, a patent law, a trademark law, a law protecting industrial designs and models, and since 1989, a law protecting the pattern design of semiconductors. Since both the United States and Austria are members of the "Paris Union" International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, U.S. investors are entitled to the same protection under Austrian patent legislation as Austrian nationals. Patents on inventions are valid up to 18 years after application. Austria is also a member of the Madrid Trademark Agreement which means an international trademark registration will also ensure trademark protection in Austria. Trademarks are protected for ten years and may be protected for another 10 years if the company renews the registration in time. Protection for industrial designs and models was extended up to 15 years under the new law effective January 1, 1991.

A levy on imports of home video cassettes and a compulsory license for cable transmission is required under Austrian copyright law. The resulting revenues are collected and distributed by marketing companies with 51

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percent of the total collected going to a special fund used for social and cultural projects. United States producers cannot share in the revenues derived from the levy as the copyright law only protects those works of foreign authors covered by the relevant state treaties or whose countries offer reciprocal rights.

Austria is now working on amending the copyright law to make its laws fit with the EC's antipiracy act. There are no estimates of losses to U.S. firms caused by intellectual property infringements in Austria; any such losses are believed to be negligible.

8. Worker Rights

a. Right of Association

Workers in Austria have the constitutional right to associate freely and the de facto right to strike. Guarantees in the Austrian Constitution governing freedom of association cover the rights of workers to join unions and engage in union activities. Labor participates in the "social partnership," Austria's unofficial tripartite forum which has significant influence on economic policy. All workers except civil servants are members of the Austrian Chambers of Labor which do research, prepare legislative proposals, and provide legal services.

b. Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

Austrian unions enjoy the right to organize and bargain collectively. The Austrian Trade Union Federation (ATUF) is exclusively responsible for collective bargaining. ATUF leadership is democratically elected. Workers are legally entitled to elect one-third of the board of major companies. Employers are legally obligated to prove that job dismissals are not motivated by antiunion discrimination.

C. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

Forced or compulsory labor is prohibited by law.
Minimum Age for Employment of Children

d.

The minimum legal working age is 15 and the law is effectively enforced by the Labor Inspectorate of the Ministry for Social Affairs.

There is no legally-mandated minimum wage in Austria. Instead, minimum wage scales are set in annual collective bargaining agreements between employers and employee organizations. Any breach of the contract can be challenged before the Labor Court. In addition, there are social welfare benefits to help those whose incomes fall below the poverty line. Over 50 percent of the workforce works a maximum of either 38 or 38.5 hours per week, a result of collective bargaining agreements.

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Health and safety standards are high and strictly enforced.

f. Rights in Sectors with U.S. Investment

Since labor laws practices are uniform throughout Austria, working conditions in the sectors in which U.S. capital is invested do not differ from those in other sectors of the economy.

(D)-Suppressed to avoid disclosing data of individual companies

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business August 1991, Vol. 71, No. 8, Table 11.3

BELGIUM

Key Economic Indicators

(Billions of Belgian Francs (BF) Unless otherwise Noted)

All figures end of year unless otherwise noted.
NM: Not Meaningful

1. General Policy Framework

Belgium belongs to the group of leading industrialized democracies. The country enjoys one of the most open economies in the world, with exports and imports together equivalent to a very high 140 percent of GNP in 1989. Belgium's greatest economic strength lies in its geographic location. Situated on Europe's northwest coast and sharing borders with four countries, including Germany and France,

BELGIUM

The

Belgium is a natural center for transit trade. Having few natural resources of its own, Belgium is reliant upon industries which transform imported goods for reexport. principal sectors of Belgium's industrial base include pharmaceuticals, high tech, automobile assembly, textiles, steel products, chemicals, refined petrochemicals and petroleum products. Major imports from the U.S. include tobacco, aircraft and associated equipment, cars and other vehicles, coal, computers and related equipment, precious and semi-precious stones, chemicals, plastics, textiles, photographic equipment, and specialized machinery.

The Belgian economy performed well in 1990, with real GNP growth of 3.7 percent, against 2.9 percent for the European Community (EC) as a whole. For the third year in succession, Belgium exceeded the EC growth average. Belgium ran a current account surplus of 2.1 percent of GNP, one of the highest levels for all OECD members. The Belgian export results were helped by the beneficial effects of German reunification. However, Belgian exports to the United Kingdom and France declined as those countries' economies stumbled.

The effects of the Gulf Crisis on the Belgian economy, while only marginal during 1990, bit deeper in 1991. GNP growth in 1991 was significantly lower, about 1.9 percent. Declining orders and consequently higher unemployment, particularly in many small and medium-sized companies, will be lagging effects of the Gulf Crisis. The effect of the Gulf Crisis on prices was short-lived. Inflation equal to 3.7 percent in 1990 should average 3.3 percent for 1991.

Growth in investment slowed in 1990 (nine percent in 1990 vs. 16.3 percent in 1989), but its contribution to GNP growth was still substantial. In 1991, downward pressure on profits and high interest rates contributed to a less favorable climate for corporate investment.

With a direct investment position of US $9,462 billion in 1990, American investment is well represented in Belgium, with more than 1,100 companies present. In all, U.S. companies generated direct employment for some 200,000 Belgians in 1990 (five percent of the labor force). Belgium's elaborate infrastructure, extensive transportation, banking and communications systems, and its status as the capital of the EC combine to make the country a prime location for American firms seeking to establish an office or facility abroad. More than 60 percent of the purchasing power in Western Europe lies within 500 miles of Brussels.

The 1990 budget deficit equaled 6 percent of GNP, against 3.9 percent for the EC average. For 1991, the deficit target is 5.6 percent of GNP. The government faces a large domestic debt stock equal to about 120 percent of GNP, which was run up mostly in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Progress in reducing the overall net debt/GNP ratio is likely to be slow, due to high European interest rates and the large amount of short and medium-term debt.

Part of the success of the gradual decline of the Federal budget deficit can be attributed to the Regional Devolution Act of 1988, whereby Belgium's regions and communities were