The U.S. Entertainment Industries are a powerful force in creating high paying jobs in the United States and in fostering the creativity and innovation that has been key to America's leadership role in the world economy. Overall, the US businesses that are based on creating, developing and distributing original works protected by copyright (e.g. the motion picture, sound recording, book, and computer and entertainment software industries) account for approximately 5.24% of the US GDP, or $535.1 billion in value added in 2001. From the directors, writers, performers, producers, engineers, artists and others who create the content, to the men and women involved in production, broadcast, exhibition, or distribution of creative works, the entertainment industries provide an array of good jobs for Americans. Foreign markets are essential to the continued growth of these industries. For the motion picture and record industries, for example, international markets represent between 40% - 60% of total revenues.
Growing levels of physical piracy, online piracy and inadequate enforcement of copyright laws internationally are challenging the competitiveness of our industries. Unless immediate action is taken, lack of adequate legislation or ineffective enforcement in markets around the world will undermine the very foundations of this quintessentially American business sector. The Administration's trade agenda provides a powerful vehicle for addressing these challenges and for removing other barriers to selling or licensing our products and services internationally. We look to the Administration and Congress to enhance the ability of our sector to expand through the negotiation of trade agreements that ensure that our intellectual property is adequately protected in the global marketplace, and that unfair barriers to our ability to export and do business internationally are eliminated.
To this end, we salute the successful conclusion of the US-Singapore and US-Chile Agreements, and we call upon Congress to promptly ratify these accords. These agreements provide standards of copyright protection for the modern digital age, and require our partners to ensure that protection is meaningful in practice through strong enforcement. These agreements also provide commercially meaningful trade commitments with the elimination of tariff and customs barriers to all US entertainment products, groundbreaking disciplines with respect to digital products and clear proof that rejecting "cultural exceptions" is possible and that trade agreements can be constructed to incorporate commitments on opening up service markets while addressing specific cultural related concerns at the same time. Achieving these goals has been a cornerstone of a non-partisan US trade policy, and continued US leadership in the digital age in the global trading system rests upon our ability to effectively achieve these goals.
A vote for the Singapore and Chile Free Trade Agreements is a vote to support the hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs for the men and women in the entertainment industry whose work makes artistry, creativity, and innovation a wonderful part of our daily lives.
