The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking for comments to put together its annual Special 301 review. The review identifies the level of intellectual property rights protection globally, broken down by country and degree of protection. IPR violators are placed on the Special 301 Watch List and Priority Watch List. USTR also can label a country a Priority Foreign Country, the most severe classification of an IPR violator. The agency chose to not give India that label in the 2014 Special 301 review, despite pressure from the pharmaceutical industry (see 1410140100). The following are important deadlines for the review, as outlined by USTR:

Russian scaled back its efforts to meet World Trade Organization requirements in its second year as a member, following a promising 2013, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in an annual report (here). President Barack Obama signed into law in December 2012 a measure to give Russia permanent normal trade relations after it acceded to the WTO, but throughout 2014 Russia abused and violated a set of trade rules, said USTR in the report. The PNTR legislation requires USTR to submit an annual report on Russian trade compliance.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative published a notice on sugar, syrup goods and sugar-containing product trade surpluses for Chile, Morocco, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, and Panama (here).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking for comments on admitting Uruguay into the World Trade Organization Trade in Services Agreement, a pact that seeks to liberalize investment conditions for the services sector (here). The U.S. is currently negotiating TiSA with Australia, Canada, Chile, Taiwan, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union, Hong Kong, China, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lichtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Switzerland, and Turkey. USTR notified Congress in November of it's intent to bring Uruguay into the negotiations. USTR is asking for comments specifically about barriers to trade in services and the services supply to Uruguay. The agency prefers comments are submitted through www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2014-0001. Comments are due by Jan. 20 at 12:00 p.m.

U.S. and South Korean trade delegations will meet often in early 2015 to iron out the outstanding issues in U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said on Dec. 14 (here). USTR chief Michael Froman met with South Korean Trade Minister Yoon Sang-jick on that day to monitor progress in implementation. The talks focused on auto issues and financial services, said USTR. The agency previously complained about insufficient progress on reforming KORUS customs provisions for U.S. auto exports, saying the South Koreans continue to require excessive, trade-inhibiting documentation (see 14031425).

The Office of U.S. Trade Representative is asking for industry comments on bringing Israel and Turkey into negotiations on the World Trade Organization Environmental Goods Agreement (here). The U.S. is currently negotiating the terms of the tariff elimination agreement, including the specific goods subject to the deal, with Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, the European Union and Taiwan (see 14091812). The deal is expected to be based off an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation pact that is slashing duties on 54 "green" products (here). Both Israel and Turkey notified the EGA negotiating partners in recent months of their intent to enter the talks. Comments on the Israeli and Turkish entries are due by Jan. 12, 2015. USTR prefers comments are submitted through www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR–2014–0024.

Negotiations to expand the Information Technology Agreement collapsed on Dec. 12, but U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade Organization Michael Punke applauded concessions made through the talks and urged all parties to the agreement to consider the next move (here). The U.S. and China announced a breakthrough in the ITA expansion talks in November that supporters say would remove duties on a range of high-tech tariff lines (see 1411110006). That deal appeared to fall short of demands from other ITA parties, which number roughly 80 in total, according to a statement given by U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Michael Punke on Dec. 12.

The U.S. and the other 11 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries should now release the TPP text as the conclusion of negotiations appears to be “coming into focus,” said dozens of civil liberty and other advocates in a letter delivered to TPP negotiators during talks in Washington (here). Lawmakers have recently joined activist calls for more transparency in “secret” TPP talks held this week (see 1412080033). “We strongly urge you to release the unbracketed text and to release the negotiating positions for text that is bracketed, now and going forwards as any future proposals are made,” said the letter, which is signed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Oxfam International and others. “The public has a legitimate interest in knowing what has already been decided on its behalf, and what is now at stake with our various countries' positions on these controversial regulatory issues.” The letter pushes the U.S. and TPP countries to follow suit with the European Union in its commitment to going public with Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström vowed recently to disclose TTIP details in the coming weeks (see 1412090023).

Textile and apparel imports from Guinea and Madagascar will now qualify for African Growth and Opportunity Act preferences after those countries put in place measures to prevent illegal transshipments of goods and counterfeit documentation, said the U.S. Trade Representative in a notice (here). The goods will qualify under AGOA as of Dec. 15. The preference program expires at the end of this fiscal year, and industry representatives have been pushing for its early renewal.

There's a long list of tariff and non-tariff barriers for U.S. telecommunications exports, ranging from redundant Chinese conformity assessments to Indian duties and Hungarian Internet traffic taxes, said industry groups in comments filed to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in recent days. USTR asked in November for U.S. industry comments on telecom sections in trade agreements (see 1411110004). The Computer and Communications Industry Association, Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), U.S. Council of International Business and two others filed comments to USTR (here). The comments were due Dec. 5 and replies are due Dec. 19.