Piracy: Ukraine in "priority watch list"

Date: May 04, 2005
Source: ZDNet UK


The United States has placed China on its "priority watch list" of countries failing to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights (IPR) such as trademarks and patents and has warned of possible U.S. action against China in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In an April 29 news release, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced publication of its annual review of countries' IPR practices and concluded that infringement levels "remain unacceptably high throughout China, in spite of Beijing's efforts to reduce them."

The Special 301 Report is required by U.S. trade law. As in 2004, USTR's 2005 report lists a total of 52 countries or economies for IPR-related problems. Ukraine was again the only country designated a "priority foreign country" and remains subject to trade sanctions of $75 million a year, USTR said.

USTR said it would continue to monitor Paraguay's implementation of its bilateral IPR agreement with the United States.

Fourteen U.S. trading partners are on the 2005 "priority watch list" meriting close attention to IPR problems: Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela.

On Russia, USTR cited concerns over high levels of piracy of CDs (compact discs) and DVDs (digital versatile discs) and Internet piracy of copyrighted works. USTR announced it would conduct a separate "out-of-cycle" review (OCR) of Russia in 2005 to monitor progress on IPR issues in the context of the country's WTO accession process.

Another 36 trading partners are on USTR's "watch list" meriting bilateral attention to underlying IPR problems. These countries or economies are: Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, European Union, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

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2005-05-10 02:44:29 - Oh common! It's a bulls**t! Why the US... The Ukrainian

2005-05-05 05:24:45 - are you as outraged about this as I am? yardmaster Dennis

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