Thailand Saturday destroyed over one million pirated goods in a bid to highlight its sincerity in tackling intellectual property crime, days before opening free trade talks with the United States.
Steamrollers, knives and spray paint were used to destroy 1.18 million fake goods confiscated in a year-long piracy crackdown, including music CDs and movie DVDs, soft toys, brand name bags, designer clothing, and watches.
The fake items, which are illegal in Thailand but widely produced and sold openly on the streets and in shops, had a street value of 142.5 million baht (3.6 million dollars).
"This is an announcement to all countries world-wide that Thailand is working genuinely to prevent and suppress the violation of intellectual property," Major General Ekarat Meeprecha, deputy commander of the Central Investigation Bureau, told AFP.
Negotiations on a free-trade agreement (FTA) between Thailand and the United States, the largest importer of Thai goods, will be launched March 23 in Washington, the US-Asean Business Council has said.
The negotiations are expected to be completed, or near finished, within the year and an agreement passed in 2005.
A deal would make Thailand only the second Southeast Asian country after Singapore to ink such an accord with the United States.
US trade officials have for years pressed Thailand to respect its demand for intellectual property protection and the issue is expected to be a pivotal one in the talks.
"While some progress has been made, bringing Thailand's intellectual property regime up to the standards set in other recent FTAs that the United States has negotiated will be a high priority of these negotiations," the US trade representative said in a statement last month.
The United States says it loses 250 million dollars annually due to goods piracy here.
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