Aryanews- Russia must improve efforts to stop piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. music, movies and other goods to achieve its longterm goal of joining the World Trade Organization, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
"We have made clear to the Russia government repeatedly that intellectual property enforcement has to be strengthened in order for them to enter the WTO," Victoria Espinel, the U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator, told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
A few weeks ago, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to resolve issues blocking Russia's WTO accession by the end of September.
Espinel told committee members she wanted to allay any concerns that pledge gave Moscow a free pass on intellectual property enforcement and said U.S. trade officials would be traveling to Russia in coming weeks to discuss the issue.