Zoellick joined various entertainment industry leaders at a news conference in Los Angeles for the official West Coast launch of the coalition. Speaking at the press conference were: Jean Prewitt, President & CEO of AFMA; Robert M. Kimmit, Executive Vice President of AOL Time Warner; Joseph A. Aredas, International Representative-in-Charge of the West Coast Office of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes; Jay Roth, National Executive Director of the Directors Guild of America; Jack Valenti, President & CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America; Vance Van Petten, Executive Director of the Producers Guild of America; Hilary Rosen, Chairman & CEO of the Recording Association of America; Zach Horowitz, President & COO of Universal Music Group; and John McLean, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, west.
Also present at the launch were Kathy Morgan, Chairman of Kathy Morgan International; Stephen Moore, President of Twentieth Century Fox International; Brett Chapman, Senior Vice President & General Counsel of Walt Disney International; and Dave Johnson, Executive Vice President of Warner Music Group.
The goal of the EIC is to educate key policymakers about the importance of free trade, the positive economic impact of international trade on the entertainment community, and the significance of international trade negotiations in laying the groundwork for strong intellectual property protections.
With the recent addition of the DGA, PGA, SAG, WGAw, and IATSE to the EIC, the Coalition now represents a wider cross-section of the American entertainment industry which includes theatrical films, TV, home video, DVDs, cable, music, video games, and the creators of such products.
The members are as follows: AFMA; AOL Time Warner; BMG Music; Directors Guild of America; EMI Recorded Music; Interactive Digital Software Association; International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.; Motion Picture Association of America; National Association of Theatre Owners; New Line Cinema; the News Corporation Limited; Paramount Pictures; Producers Guild of America; Recording Industry Association of America; Screen Actors Guild; Sony Music Entertainment Inc.; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Television Association of Programmers (TAP) Latin America; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal Music Group; Universal Studios; Viacom; the Walt Disney Company; Warner Bros.; Warner Music Group, and Writers Guild of America, west.
Foreign sales and exports by the copyright industries in 2001 are estimated at $88.97 billion, surpassing all major industry sectors including: chemical and allied products, motor vehicles, equipment and parts, aircraft and aircraft parts, and the agricultural sector.
Between 1997 and 2001, the copyright industries' average annual employment grew more than three times as fast as the remainder of the economy. The data for 2002 is expected to be as compelling for the tremendous contribution that the entertainment industry continues to make in the U.S. economy in terms of U.S. jobs, investment and exports.
This significant part of the U.S. economy, however, is wholly dependent upon achieving enhanced global standards of copyright protection and enforcement, ensuring meaningful market access, and developing trade disciplines that keep pace with technological development. These are all central to the Coalition members' ability to remain competitive.
The Coalition salutes the efforts of the Administration to achieve all of these objectives through the negotiation of free trade agreements, and it calls upon the Congress to ratify accords that achieve these objectives without delay.
The first objective of the EIC is to educate Members of Congress of the importance that the entertainment industry places on the passage of the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Trade Agreements. The agreements encompass a number of issues that are vital to the members of the Coalition such as: (1) providing strong protection of intellectual property in the digital age; (2) strengthening copyright enforcement; (3) increasing market access with the elimination of tariffs for all U.S. entertainment products; and (4) demonstrating that trade agreements can be constructed to incorporate commitments on opening up service markets while addressing specific cultural related concerns at the same time. Although some technical issues are still being resolved with respect to the Chile agreement, the Coalition is confident that both agreements promote important U.S. economic objectives.
