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R 251550Z AUG 09
FM USEU BRUSSELS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC
US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS USEU BRUSSELS 001177 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OTRA AORC CTM SCCC
 
SUBJECT: World Customs Organization (WCO) Establishment of 
Counterfeiting and Piracy (CAP) Group 
 
SUMMARY: The World Customs Organization (WCO) Council, made up of 
the Directors General of 174 Customs Administrations, recently 
approved the establishment of a Counterfeiting and Piracy (CAP) 
Group, which will serve as a platform for WCO Members to 
constructively exchange views and deeply discuss matters of 
relevance in the realm of border-focused Intellectual Property 
Rights (IPR) protection.  This group marks a new start to 
IPR-related discussions in the WCO after the 2-year efforts of the 
former SECURE (Standards Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights 
Enforcement) Working Group were ended, primarily due to major 
concerns with respect to standard and norm setting, which was seen 
by several Members as a direct challenge to the stature of the 
preeminent World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related 
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).  The first meeting 
of the CAP Group is provisionally scheduled to take place at the WCO 
in Brussels, Belgium in October 2009.  U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection (CBP), as the lead USG representative to the WCO, will 
evaluate draft agendas for the WCO CAP group and regularly engage 
other USG stakeholders (as appropriate and consistent with 
established interagency procedures) in advance of future meetings of 
the WCO CAP group to ensure optimal USG representation.  END 
SUMMARY 
 
BACKGROUND: 
 
Since the June 2007 Council sessions, the World Customs Organization 
and its Member Customs Administrations had been developing the 
SECURE (Standards Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights 
Enforcement) program, through the SECURE Working Group, as a primary 
means to catalog best practices and enforcement tactics used by 
Customs Administrations to battle the illicit cross-border movement 
of IPR infringing goods.  Simultaneous to these SECURE Working Group 
efforts, the WCO Secretariat has been providing IPR-focused training 
and technical assistance (Capacity Building) to WCO Members 
requesting same.  The SECURE program had been expected to be the 
primary resource from which capacity building for WCO Members 
requesting such assistance would ultimately be derived, once 
finalized and approved by the WCO Council. 
 
Development of the SECURE program, and even the Terms of Reference 
for the SECURE Working Group itself, became increasingly debated and 
embroiled in political dynamics at the SECURE Working Group 
meetings.  This was most generally brought about through the 
coordinated actions of various Latin America-based WCO Members 
(Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, etc.) and was compounded by unchecked 
private sector participation in the sessions.  Together, these 
conditions limited the constructive dialogue which could be 
undertaken by the group.  Due to this impasse, it was finally 
determined at the WCO Policy Commission sessions in Buenos Aires, 
Argentina in December 2008 that the SECURE Working Group would no 
longer meet and that the WCO Secretariat would develop Terms of 
Reference for a new IPR-focused Working Group at the WCO. 
 
Over the course of several months (March - June 2009), the former 
Chairperson of the SECURE Working Group led a WCO Member-driven 
dialogue on a way forward for IPR in the WCO. During this dialogue, 
a new Terms of Reference was agreed upon by the participating 22 WCO 
Member Customs Administrations, including a significant number of 
participants from Latin American Administrations which had objected 
to the SECURE program.  The U.S. supported the adoption of the Terms 
of Reference by the WCO Council to ensure that IPR dialogue 
continued in a dedicated IPR group at the WCO.  Aspects of IPR will 
also be addressed as a recurring topic on the agendas of other WCO 
Committees, including its Permanent Technical Committee (to which 
the CAP Group will report) and its Enforcement Committee.   Aside 
from the general value to be gained through sharing of views and 
experiences in the WCO CAP Group sessions, CBP foresees value in the 
regular and more informal engagement, over the course of several 
days and meetings per year, of IPR experts from Customs 
Administrations on the sidelines of the sessions as a means to 
advance common goals and objectives.  The CBP Point of Contact is 
Ms. Therese Randazzo, Director for IPR Policy and Programs, CBP 
Office of International Trade, and she can be contacted at 
therese.randazzo@dhs.gov. 
 
The first meeting of the CAP Group is provisionally scheduled to 
take place at the WCO in Brussels, Belgium in October 2009.  U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as the lead  US representative 
to the WCO, will evaluate draft agendas for the WCO CAP group and 
regularly engage other USG stakeholders (as appropriate and 
consistent with established interagency procedures) in advance of 
future meetings of the WCO CAP group to ensure optimal USG 
representation. 
 
Murray