In Special 301 Report, USTR Elevates Mexico to Its List of Worst IP Offenders
In its annual report on how foreign countries honor intellectual property protections, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative added Mexico to its Priority Watch List of the worst offenders, while Argentina, China, India, Indonesia, Chile, Russia and Venezuela remain on the list from last year.
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The news release announcing the report said Mexico was added due to "long-standing and significant" intellectual property concerns, many of which are related to its implementation of the USMCA. Concerns for Mexico include trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy enforcement, pharmaceutical-related intellectual property protection, and plant variety protection.
The report also said that China belongs on the list because it failed to implement or only partially implemented "a number of its commitments on intellectual property under the United States-China Economic and Trade Agreement (Phase One Agreement)" agreed to during President Donald Trump's first term.
The report highlights concerns for USTR to address, such as online piracy, which it called "the most challenging copyright enforcement issue in many foreign markets"; forced technology transfer, for which it highlighted China; and concerns about the European Union’s "aggressive promotion" of its exclusionary geographical indications policies.
There are 18 countries on the watch list for IP concerns -- Algeria, Barbados, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, and Vietnam. Turkmenistan was removed from that list because stakeholders had not raised "significant concerns" about intellectual property theft in the past several years.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance praised the USTR's report in a statement, especially its mention of Mexican copyright violations: "Highlighting these barriers and working to eliminate them supports U.S. creators and helps develop our trading partners’ creative industries."
USTR Jamieson Greer said in the news release that "trading partners must address the concerns identified in the Special 301 Report and stop those stealing the intellectual property of hard-working businesses and individuals." He called the report "a basis for the United States to take trade enforcement action against those not playing fairly.”