The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) welcomed the United States Senate’s bipartisan approval of H.R. 3688, the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act, but expressed reservations about the continued inclusion of overly broad intellectual property protection provisions in the current free trade agreement template. The Peru agreement is the first of the four pending Free Trade Agreements to be voted on by this Congress, and would immediately make 80 percent of U.S. consumer and industrial exports to Peru duty-free.
“Coupled with last month’s bipartisan approval in the House, today’s 77-18 vote is a sign of the U.S. commitment to free trade and open markets, and we applaud the Senate for it. However, we call attention to the fact that overly broad intellectual property protection provisions continue to be included in this and other pending FTAs,” said Ed Black, CCIA’s President & CEO. “While we hope that this bipartisan free trade consensus will last, we continue to believe the FTA template needs to reflect the concept of fair use, and we look forward to a discussion of this issue.”