Author: Paulo Skaf *

Source: Gazeta Mercantil, 22/02/2008

February 22, 2008 - Brazil cannot be put off in the fight against piracy. It is undeniable that many advances have been made in this process. However, it is necessary to enforce the legal framework that regulates the rights and obligations related to industrial and intellectual property.

In order to better understand the nature of the “enemy” to be fought, it is important to know that our country is not characterized as a producer of counterfeit products. Unfortunately, however, it is a big consumer.

It is estimated that about 80% of the pirated products that circulate in the Brazilian market come from China, Korea and Paraguay. Therefore, the priority action to mitigate the problem is clear: inspection and repression, beginning with the attempt to prevent the illegal entry of these goods.

Of course, such a task is not easy in this continent Brazil, with almost 11 thousand kilometers of borders, with seven different countries. For this reason, in the opinion of the Federation and Center of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp / Ciesp), it is also necessary to give more competitiveness, in terms of prices, to legal products, services and intellectual production.

This homework requires a reduction in the tax burden, with a direct impact on the cost of production, inhibiting smuggling, this nefarious executioner of the formal economy, companies and workers.

The fight against the serious problem must be effective, articulate and capable, therefore, of facing the entire organization that permeates this type of crime. It is not enough to arrest unlawful street vendors and street vendors who sell a wide range of items (electronics, toys, glasses, watches, DVDs, etc.), as this “labor force” is abundant and its replacement occurs very quickly. You need to reduce the cost-effectiveness of buying a pirated product.

Another measure in the fight against piracy is the mobilization of society, since the responsibility is not only of the government. An example of the importance of this civic stance can be found in the actions of Fiesp / Ciesp itself. The removal of our country, in 2007, from the priority list of nations that violate intellectual property and are compliant with piracy, prepared by the United States Trade Representation Office (USTR), is directly related to its work.

The measure crowned a series of efforts, which counted and count on the entity's active participation. It is worth remembering that this effort had previously helped to maintain our exports in the North American General System of Preferences (SGP).

Fiesp's war against piracy was started in early 2005, when we visited different government agencies in the United States, including the Department of Commerce. We also held, in São Paulo, the seminar “Brazil Against Piracy”, with the presence of Senator Norm Coleman, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere of the Senate Foreign Relations Commission and the American ambassador in our country, John Danilovich.

In 2006, Fiesp trained 400 customs agents from the Federal Revenue, in 14 ports in Brazil, enabling them to recognize counterfeit products. In 2007, the project continued, covering nine more ports, four airports and five areas called “dry frontier”.

This partnership between the entity and the Federal Revenue Service, the National Council for Combating Piracy of the Ministry of Justice (CNPC / MJ) and the American Chamber of Commerce has already shown substantial results, with the seizure of 160 pairs of sneakers, valued at R $ 20 million, 46 tons of smuggled goods of Chinese origin and seven containers with 70 tons of counterfeit goods, valued at R $ 18 million.

The tax exemption of 1,5% of GDP, resulting from the end of the CPMF in 2007, a banner defended by Fiesp / Ciesp, which promoted wide mobilization in favor of this achievement, is another example of how much society can and should do.
We must make it increasingly clear that it pays to advocate the legal and the ethical as inalienable values ​​of our productive sectors and assumptions of our model of competitive insertion in the globalized economy!

kicker: It is not enough to arrest street vendors; mobilization against piracy is needed

PAULO SKAF * - President of the Federation and Center of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp / Ciesp). Next article by the author on March 14)