The U.S. initiated a Special 301 investigation of Ukraine over concerns about the country’s treatment of intellectual property rights, Acting U.S. Trade Representative Miriam Sapiro said Thursday. Ukraine was named a priority foreign country in USTR’s Special 301 report, an annual look at intellectual property rights protection and enforcement. It cited problems with Ukraine’s use of pirated software, online piracy enforcement and opaque and unfair administration and operation of copyright collecting societies. The USTR will hold a public hearing on July 18 as part of the investigation, and will publish a future Federal Register notice with procedures for participating. Sapiro said the U.S. will consult with Ukraine’s government on the “serious concerns” the U.S. has with intellectual property rights in the country. Priority foreign countries are trading partners whose “onerous or egregious acts, policies, or practices” have the greatest adverse impact on relevant U.S. products, while also not entering into negotiations or making significant progress in negotiations to address those problems. Ukraine was the first priority foreign country the U.S. has named in seven years. RIAA wants the Ukrainian government to “move quickly to address the causes that lead to this investigation in the first place and avert possible sanctions,” Executive Vice President-International Neil Turkewitz said separately.

The U.S. initiated a Special 301 investigation of Ukraine over concerns about the country’s treatment of intellectual property rights, Acting U.S. Trade Representative Miriam Sapiro said May 30. Ukraine was named a Priority Foreign Country in USTR’s Special 301 report, an annual look at intellectual property rights protection and enforcement (see 13050201). The report, released in early May, cited problems with Ukraine’s use of pirated software, online piracy enforcement and opaque and unfair administration and operation of copyright collecting societies.

The U.S. Trade Representative named Ukraine its first Priority Foreign Country in seven years, while citing significant progress on copyright issues in Canada and growing concerns over trade secret theft in China, in the agency’s 2013 Special 301 review process. The Special 301 report, an annual look at intellectual property rights protection and enforcement, placed 41 countries on one of three watch lists. The U.S. can initiate World Trade Organization dispute settlement proceedings or eliminate tariff preferences for countries on the lists. Read the complete report (here).

The U.S. Trade Representative named Ukraine its first Priority Foreign Country (PFC) in seven years, while citing significant progress on copyright issues in Canada and growing concerns over trade secret theft in China. The designations came in the agency’s 2013 Special 301 review process. The Special 301 Report, an annual look at intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement, placed 41 countries on three different watch lists. The report is meant to help the U.S. promote IPR protection and enforcement. The U.S. can initiate World Trade Organization dispute settlement proceedings or eliminate tariff preferences for countries on the lists.

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued final regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to govern the unintentional taking of marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to port construction and operations related to liquified natural gas imports. The specific rules are for the Port Dolphin Deepwater Port in the Gulf of Mexico, for the period of about June 2013 through May 2018, it said.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Parenteral Drug Association plan a public conference on "Driving Quality and Compliance Throughout the Product Life Cycle in a Global Regulatory Environment," according to a Federal Register notice. The conference will explore ways to ensure conformance with regulations that facilitate improvement of safe and effective medical products, it said. The all-day conference will begin at 7 a.m. Sept. 16 and continue through Sept. 18 at the Renaissance Washington Hotel in Washington, D.C. Further information: Wanda Neal, 301-656-5900, ext. 111 or info@pda.org.

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 25-29 in case they were missed.

Two of the top Democrats on the House Committee on Ways and Means urged the U.S. Trade Representative in a letter made public on Friday (http://1.usa.gov/Xey5y8) to reprimand China for engaging in cybertheft of U.S. trade secrets. Based on China’s “breach of its [World Trade Organization] obligations,” Acting USTR Demetrios Marantis should designate China a “priority foreign country” in the USTR’s Special 301 list of countries with inadequate IP protections, the letter said. The letter was sent by Ranking Member Sander Levin, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade Ranking Member Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. “It looks very much as though the Chinese government is stealing our companies’ trade secrets and passing them along to their [state-owned enterprises] and possibly other Chinese companies,” the letter said. “We have known for some time that the government of China does not do enough to enforce the intellectual property of U.S. innovators in China. But government-sponsored theft of trade secrets would put China in an entirely different category.”

Two of the top Democrats on the House Committee on Ways and Means urged the U.S. Trade Representative in a letter made public on Friday (http://1.usa.gov/Xey5y8) to reprimand China for engaging in cybertheft of U.S. trade secrets. Based on China’s “breach of its [World Trade Organization] obligations,” Acting USTR Demetrios Marantis should designate China a “priority foreign country” in the USTR’s Special 301 list of countries with inadequate IP protections, the letter said. The letter was sent by Ranking Member Sander Levin, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade Ranking Member Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. “It looks very much as though the Chinese government is stealing our companies’ trade secrets and passing them along to their [state-owned enterprises] and possibly other Chinese companies,” the letter said. “We have known for some time that the government of China does not do enough to enforce the intellectual property of U.S. innovators in China. But government-sponsored theft of trade secrets would put China in an entirely different category.”

The U.S. Trade Representative should name China a Priority Foreign Country because of alleged trade secret theft by the country, Democratic leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee said March 28. “We have known for some time that the Government of China does not do enough to enforce the intellectual property of U.S. innovators in China. But government-sponsored theft of trade secrets would put China in an entirely different category,” said Committee Ranking Member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. in a letter sent to Acting USTR Demetrios Marantis. “Given the evidence of this egregious conduct, the corresponding damage to our businesses, and the fact that China is in breach of its [World Trade Organization] obligations, we urge you to consider designating China a Priority Foreign Country for Special 301 purposes.”