USTR Issues its 2007 "Special 301" Annual Report
On April 30, 2007, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released its 2007 "Special 301" annual report on the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection by U.S. trading partners.
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The USTR states the 2007 Special 301 review process examines IPR protection and enforcement in 79 countries, and designates 43 countries in the categories of Priority Watch List, Watch List, and/or Section 306 monitoring status.
Highlights of the 2007 Special 301 Annual Report
In this year's review, the USTR devotes special attention to the need for significantly improved enforcement against counterfeiting and piracy. In addition, the USTR continues to focus on other critically important issues, including Internet piracy, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, transshipment of pirated and counterfeit goods, requiring authorized use of legal software by government ministries, proper implementation of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement by developed and developing country WTO members, and full implementation of TRIPS Agreement standards by new WTO members at the time of their accession.
China and Russia remain prominent IPR concerns. According to the USTR, again this year, the report highlights the prominence of concerns with respect to China and Russia, in spite of some evidence of improvement.
Russia remains a focus of U.S. trade policy in the area of intellectual property. Large-scale production and distribution of IP-infringing optical media and minimally-restrained Internet piracy are among the major problems that require more enforcement action. The USTR states that the coming months will be a critical period, as Russia moves to implement a variety of legal and law enforcement improvements to which it committed as part of a bilateral agreement with the U.S. on Russia's eventual accession to the WTO.
The USTR states that while the U.S. continues to work with China in many areas to strengthen its IPR regime, high levels of copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting remain of concern. The U.S. recently sought consultations under the WTO to address a number of discrete deficiencies in China's IPR regime. The U.S. has since been joined by Canada, EU, Japan, and Mexico as third parties in these consultations. (See ITT's Online Archives or 04/25/07 news, 07042520, for BP summary of the USTR's request for comments on these WTO consultations.)
12 countries on the Priority Watch List. The USTR states that countries on the Priority Watch List do not provide an adequate level of IPR protection or enforcement, or market access for persons relying on intellectual property protection. In addition to China and Russia, 10 countries are on the Priority Watch List in this year's report: Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Venezuela. Priority Watch List countries will be the subject of particularly intense engagement through bilateral discussion during the coming year.
30 countries on the Watch List.According to USTR, thirty trading partners are on the lower level Watch List, meriting bilateral attention to address the underlying IPR problems. The Watch List 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, China remain Section 306 monitoring countries. Paraguay will continue to be subject to Section 306 monitoring under a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding that establishes objectives and actions for addressing IPR concerns in that country. China will also continue to be subject to Section 306 monitoring.
Several countries improve IPR status. The USTR states that in addition to flagging prominent intellectual property concerns of U.S. trade policy, the Special 301 report also provides an opportunity to recognize progress. Brazil is being moved to the Watch List (from Priority Watch List), reflecting significant improvements in copyright enforcement. Five other trading partners - Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia, the EU, and Latvia - are being removed from the Special 301 listing altogether.
Out-of-cycle reviews for 4 countries. The USTR notes that this report announced out-of-cycle reviews for four countries-Russia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, and Pakistan. Out-of-cycle reviews are conducted on countries that warrant further review before the next Special 301 Report and could result in changes in their status before next April's report.
USTR press release (dated 04/30/07) available at http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2007/April/SPECIAL_301_Report.html
USTR 2007 "Special 301" Report available at http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Reports_Publications/2007/2007_Special_301_Review/asset_upload_file230_11122.pdf