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 Disc Act. The United States will conduct an out-of-cycle review in the fall to assess Malaysia's enforcement efforts, particularly its full implementation of the Optical Disc Act by September 15, 2001.

 The Philippines' copyright enforcement is weak and we are concerned that the Philippines has the potential of becoming a center of pirate optical media production in Asia. The number of production lines for compact discs and other optical media has doubled during the past year. Like Indonesia, the Philippines is apparently becoming a destination for pirate producers forced out of Asian countries that have more vigorous enforcement regimes. Legislation to control pirated optical media production is urgently needed. Cable piracy is also widespread. A large number of cable systems retransmit new and recent films without authorization from right-holders. Despite the Government's recent elimination of its reprint licensing scheme, we are concerned that piracy of U.S. textbooks remains rampant in the Philippines. Resources for enforcement are inadequate, customs efforts at the border are sporadic and the judicial process is so slow that it is virtually ineffective. While the Philippines has designated dozens of Special Intellectual Property Rights Courts, such designation has not improved the handling of IP cases. Moreover, a recent court decision suggests that the Philippines does not provide for civil ex-parte search remedies, in apparent violation of the TRIPS Agreement. We are, however, heartened by comments suggesting that the new government of President Macapagal-Arroyo will take the Philippines' IP problems more seriously. We look forward to a productive dialogue and concrete progress on intellectual property issues with the new Philippines' Government.

 Certain provisions in Russia's copyright law, trademark law, other intellectual property laws and in its enforcement regime are not consistent with the intellectual property provisions of the 1991 U.S.-Russian Federation bilateral trade agreement, nor do we believe that are they in compliance with the TRIPS Agreement. Among the deficiencies are: the lack of full retroactive protection for works and sound recordings, the lack of civil ex parte search procedures and other enforcement-related deficiencies. We are also concerned about the lack of legislation to control pirated optical media production, which is urgently needed. Lack of enforcement against unauthorized production and export of CDs and CD-ROMs, and concerns about the inadequate protection of well-known trademarks, remain growing problems that cause U.S. industry substantial losses annually. Trademark counterfeiting is also widespread; the local market is full of counterfeit clothing, footwear, household chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Given Russia's ongoing WTO accession negotiations, we urge that Russia to bring its laws in line with international standards before joining the WTO.

 The U.S. copyright industries contend that Taiwan is one of the largest producers of pirated optical media products in the world. Dozens of optical media plants operate in Taiwan, with a total production capacity that far exceeds Taiwan's domestic demand. Despite this problem, Taiwan has declined to enact the kind of strong optical media licensing legislation that has been effective in countering piracy elsewhere in the region. It has also failed to shut down known pirate operations.