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 who face illegal optical media production within their borders to pass effective legislation to counter this problem and aggressively enforce existing laws and regulations.

Under Executive Order 13103 issued in September 1998, United States Government agencies maintain procedures to ensure the authorized and legitimate use of business software. Pursuant to the same directive, USTR has undertaken an initiative to work with other governments, particularly in countries that are modernizing their software asset management systems or where concerns have been raised, to stop governmental use of illegal software. Considerable progress has been made under this initiative, leading to numerous countries and territories mandating that only authorized, legitimate software may be used by government ministries. Further work on this issue remains with certain countries such as Belarus, China, Peru, Saudi Arabia, and Ukraine. The United States looks forward to the adoption by these governments of effective and transparent procedures to ensure legitimate use of software.

As affirmed in the 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, the United States respects a country's right to protect public health, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all and supports the vital role of the patent system in promoting the development and creation of new and innovative lifesaving drugs.

Consistent with these views, the United States respects our trading partners' rights to grant compulsory licenses in a manner consistent with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, and encourages our trading partners to consider ways of addressing their public health challenges while maintaining stable intellectual property systems that promote investment, research, and innovation.

The United States is firmly of the view that international obligations such as those in the TRIPS Agreement have sufficient flexibility to allow countries to address the serious public health problems that they may face. We strongly support the TRIPS/health solution concluded in August 2003, in which members are permitted, in accordance with specified procedures, to issue compulsory licenses to export pharmaceutical products to countries that cannot produce drugs for themselves. The General Council adopted a Decision in December 2005 that incorporated this solution into an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement, and later that month the United States became the first WTO member to formally accept this amendment. The United States hopes to see at least two-thirds of the WTO membership accept this amendment by the December 31, 2009 deadline, at which point the amendment will go into effect for those members that accept it. The August 2003 waiver will remain in place and available until the amendment takes effect.

The United States will work to ensure that the provisions of our bilateral and regional trade agreements are consistent with these views, and do not impede the taking of measures necessary to protect public health. In addition, USTR will continue its close cooperation with the Department of Health and Human Services, which contributed to the negotiation of the recently adopted Global Strategy on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property and the agreed