US Trade Representative Issues IPRs Special 301 Report
30-Apr-2007
WASHINGTON, DC - The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) released on April 30, 2007, its annual “Special 301” report on the adequacy and effectiveness of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) protection by US trading partners.
According to US Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab, “The report underscores the Administration’s scrutiny in pinpointing challenges in protecting IPRs and signals to our trading partners that effective IPRs protection will remain a critical focus in US policy.”
This year’s report places 43 countries on the Priority Watch List (PWL), Watch List (WL) or the Section 306 monitoring list.
Countries on the PWL do not provide an adequate level of IPRs protection or enforcement, or market access for persons relying on IP protection. In addition to China and Russia, 10 countries are on the PWL in this year’s report: Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. Such countries will be the subject of particularly intense engagement through bilateral discussion during the coming year.
Thirty trading partners are on the lower level WL, meriting bilateral attention to address the underlying IPRs problems. The WL countries are: Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Paraguay will continue to be subject to Section 306 monitoring under a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that establishes objectives and actions for addressing IPRs concerns in that country.
Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia, the EU and Latvia are being removed from the Special 301 listing altogether.
Despite some encouraging developments, the report makes clear that numerous IPRs problems persist around the world. Trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals is a particularly grave concern, in light of the risks to human health and safety. Unabated piracy of CDs, DVDs and CD-ROMs, and the widespread counterfeiting of trademark-protected consumer and industrial goods will also remain important focuses of US IPRs trade policy efforts in the coming year.