China & Canada Top New U.S. Piracy Haven List
On Monday, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its annual Special 301 Report on the adequacy and effectiveness of U.S. trading partners’ protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). America’s two largest trading partners, Canada and China, remain on the 12 country Priority Watch List. The failure of Canadian efforts to enact new copyright legislation and to strengthen border enforcement kept the country on the list. Full list of offending countries:
Trading partners on the Priority Watch List present the most significant concerns regarding insufficient IPR protection or enforcement, or otherwise limited market access for persons relying on intellectual property protection. Twelve countries are on the Priority Watch List:
- China
- Russia
- Algeria
- Argentina
- Canada
- Chile
- India
- Indonesia
- Israel
- Pakistan
- Thailand
- Venezuela
These countries will be the subject of particularly intense bilateral engagement during the coming year.
Twenty-nine trading partners are on the Watch List, also meriting bilateral attention to address underlying IPR problems: Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
