| MUMBAI:
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has released its annual
Special 301 Report on the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property
rights (IPR) protection by US trading partners.
Again
this year, USTR’s Special 301 Report highlights serious IPR concerns with
respect to China and Russia, in spite of some evidence of improvement in both
countries.
USTR
will once again retain China on the Priority Watch List and
continue monitoring China under Section 306 of the 1974 Trade
Act, thus maintaining pressure on China to improve its IPR
situation.
While the United States continues to seek cooperative channels
to work with China to strengthen that country’s IPR regime,
high levels of copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting
remain serious concerns. At the same time, the US is also
using the WTO dispute settlement process to address a number
of specific deficiencies in China’s IPR regime.
The
Administration also continues to work for improvements to
the intellectual property regime in Russia. Although Russia
has made some progress – for example, in moving optical
disc factories off government-controlled sites and raiding
unlicensed factories – large-scale production and distribution
of IP-infringing optical media and Internet piracy remain
significant problems that require more enforcement action.
The
United States will continue to monitor to ensure that Russia
moves to implement a variety of legal and law enforcement
improvements to which it committed as part of a bilateral
agreement with the United States on Russia’s accession
to the WTO. Implementation of these commitments remains essential
to completing the final multilateral negotiations on the overall
accession package.
Improvements
noted for several trading partners : In
addition to flagging prominent intellectual property concerns
of US trade policy, the Special 301 Report also provides an
opportunity to recognize trading partners whose efforts to
improve intellectual property protection and enforcement are
delivering results both for home-grown innovators in those
countries and for US right holders.
Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, and Ukraine are being moved to the
Watch List (from Priority Watch List), reflecting improvements
in each country’s IPR regime. Two other trading partners
– Belize and Lithuania – are being removed from
the Special 301 Report.
There
are nine countries on this year’s Priority Watch List. They are India, China,
Russia, Argentina, Chile, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand, and Venezuela. 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 absolute terms and/or relative to a range of factors such as their
level of development. Priority Watch List countries will be the subject of particularly
intense engagement through bilateral discussion during the coming year.
Despite
some encouraging developments, the detailed country discussions in the Special
301 Report make clear that numerous IPR problems persist around the world. Trade
in counterfeit pharmaceuticals continues to be a particularly grave concern in
light of the risks to human health and safety, and the United States continues
to be actively engaged in addressing this serious problem. The US will also remain
focused on combating large-scale piracy of optical media and the widespread counterfeiting
of trademark-protected consumer and industrial goods. USTR
ambassador Susan C. Schwab says, "The Special 301 Report spotlights one of
the central challenges facing the global economy. Pirates and counterfeiters don’t
just steal ideas; they steal jobs, and too often they threaten our health and
safety. The Administration has been committed to stepping up the fight against
IPR infringers who seek to profit from American artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs.” As
the US confronts international piracy, counterfeiting, and other forms of IPR
theft, the Special 301 Report constitutes a critical policy tool for focusing
on urgent problems including the growing problem of Internet piracy and the counterfeiting
of pharmaceuticals and other products that threaten the health and safety of consumers
around the world. The Report provides a basis for constructive engagement with
U.S. trading partners in order to address these challenges, particularly in key
countries such as China and Russia. “We
continue to work with our Chinese and Russian colleagues to ensure that they deliver
on their commitments to improve intellectual property protection and enforcement.
“Our
bilateral engagement with China, Russia and other trading partners complement
our efforts to enforce our rights through the WTO. The Administration will continue
to defend vigorously American innovation. US leadership remains critical to improving
the global IPR climate" said
Schwab | 
