SPECIAL 301 CANADA 2007, DEMARCHE DELIVERED

UNCLAS OTTAWA 000783 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CAN AND EEB/TPP/IPE BOGER AND WALLACE STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR FOR MELLE AND SULIVAN COMMERCE FOR GERI WORD AND SEBASTIAN WRIGHT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR CA SUBJECT: SPECIAL 301 CANADA 2007, DEMARCHE DELIVERED REF: A. STATE 56189 ¶B. OTTAWA 765 ¶1. (SBU) EconMinCouns delivered points in ref A to Paul Robertson, Director General, North America Trade Policy Bureau, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. DG Robertson said that the GOC understands U.S. concerns very well. Declining to answer questions about when and how Canada intends to improve IPR protection, Robertson referred to Prime Minister Harper's April 23 letter to Ambassador Wilkins (Ref B) saying that he (Robertson) "can not be more specific than the Prime Minister." Doug George, Director of the Intellectual Property, Information and Technology Trade Division was equally vague. He said that, as he explained in his testemony to Parliment on April 25, the interagency working group on border enforcement, which he chairs, has been working hard for over two years but has no definite target date for releasing their recommendations. ¶2. (SBU) DG Robertson noted that U.S. Trade Representative Schwab will be in Ottawa on May 9 and 10 and said that the GOC expects IPR to be one of the major issues of this visit. He said that all of the Ministers that she meets with will be fully briefed on IPR. Robertson also stated that Minister of Industry Bernier, who has previously offered estimates of when Canada's new copyright bill would be inroduced in Parliment, might be in a position to provide an updated estimate. (Comment: Bernier has made several previous estimates to the Ambassador and other high ranking USG officials. All of the target dates, the earliest of which was last fall, have passed and the bill has not yet been introduced. End Comment.) ¶3. (SBU) Meeting Participants Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade: Paul Robertson - Director General, North America Trade Policy Bureau Douglas George - Director, Intellectual Property, Information and Technology Trade Division Sean Clark - Senior Trade Policy Officer, Intellectual Property, Information and Technology Trade Division U.S. Embassy: Brian Mohler - Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs John Carwile - Counselor for Economic Affairs Ryan Stoner - Second Secretary for Economic Affairs Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa WILKINS