Ukraine Named Priority Foreign Country; Other IP Rights Violating Countries Designated in Annual USTR Report
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).
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Severe deterioration of pirated software and online piracy enforcement -- including government use of pirated software -- plus stalled negotiations pushed Ukraine towards its Priority Foreign Country (PFC) designation, USTR said. PFCs are trading partners “whose onerous or egregious acts, policies, or practices have the greatest adverse impact (actual or potential) on the relevant U.S. products,” USTR said.
The report names 10 countries on the Priority Watch List: Algeria, Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, and Venezuela. The list designates countries of significant concern to IPR protection, enforcement and market access. China continues to stay on the list, despite the country’s ongoing revision of its IPR legal regime, the report said. Online piracy, counterfeiting and restrictive market access rules persist in China, the report said. Trade secret thefts are also increasing, both in China and outside the country for the benefit of Chinese entities, the report said. “Too often, Chinese authorities view trade secrets cases as routine commercial disputes, rather than as serious violations of law.” In March, House Ways and Means leaders urged the USTR to name China a PFC, due to government-sponsored trade secret theft in the country (see 13032823).
The report names 30 countries on the Watch List, which merit bilateral attention to address underlying IPR problems. Canada -- listed as a priority country last year -- is now on the Watch List, due to the country’s 2012 Copyright Modernization Act and a 2013 IPR enforcement bill. Barbados, Bulgaria, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago were also added to the 2013 Watch List. The other countries are: Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Brunei and Norway moved off the Watch List. El Salvador and Spain are also not listed in the report, but USTR will conduct out-of-cycle reviews to assess progress on IPR challenges there.