U.S. and Hong Kong (1997)

[full text]

30 April 1997

USTR REPORT ON SPECIAL 301 ANNUAL REVIEW

FACT SHEET

"SPECIAL 301" ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

ACTIONS TAKEN

Acting United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky today announced the Administration's decision with respect to this year's review under the so- called "special 301" provisions of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (Trade Act).

This decision reflects the Administration's continued commitment to aggressive enforcement of protection for intellectual property. Intellectual property protection has been improving in part as a result of the implementation of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement). The decision also reflects progress made over the course of 1996 in resolving many longstanding problems.

The decision announced by Ambassador Barshefsky includes the following specific actions:

-- monitoring China under Section 306 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. This means that USTR will be in a position to move directly to trade sanctions if there is slippage in China's enforcemenal IPR agreements.

-- placing 10 trading partners on the "priority watch list" including Argentina, Ecuador, Egypt, the European Union, Greece, India, Indonesia, Paraguay, Russia and Turkey and conducting "out-of-cycle" reviews of Ecuador, Greece, Paraguay and Turkey;

-- placing 36 trading partners on the "watch list" and conducting "out-of-cycle" reviews of Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Luxembourg, Panama and Thailand.

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WATCH LIST

In reviewing the practices of our trading partners, the USTR has decided that 36 countries should be placed on the "watch list". The Administration uses the "watch list" as a means of monitoring progress in implementing commitments with regard to the protection of intellectual property rights and for providing comparable market access for U.S. intellectual property products.

Countries placed on the watch list are:

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Hong Kong: Copyright piracy has worsened in Hong Kong over the past year, despite requests from the US Government for action, and greater effort by the Government of Hong Kong to combat this problem. As a result, Hong Kong is being placed on the watch list. Enactment of a new copyright law is expected in the near future which should significantly strengthen Hong Kong's ability to make major inroads in the battle against copyright piracy. An out-of-cycle review will be conducted in the fall to review the results of these efforts, with the expectation that Hong Kong will make significant progress in this regard.

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DEVELOPMENTS IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

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JULY

-- A Hong Kong district court concluded the first piracy case tried under the enhanced penalty provisions enacted in May 1995. Two defendants were convicted, fined and sentenced to short prison terms.

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