Canada on US IP Watch List, Again

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has published its annual review of countries' intellectual property rights (IPR) practices and, once again, Canada has been included in the Special 301 Report, named after the legislative provision which requires the annual review. The Trade Act of 1974 requires the USTR to annually identify those countries that "deny adequate and effective protection for IPR or deny fair and equitable market access for persons that rely on IP protection". The Report includes a hierarchy of categories including a Watch List and a Priority Watch List, for countries in which particular problems exist with respect to IPR, and, in the worst case, a designation as a Priority Foreign Country (Ukraine has the distinction of being the only country with this designation and, as a result, faces US trade sanctions of US $75 million annually). The Report urges Canada to strengthen its border enforcement to protect against the transhipment and transiting of counterfeit goods, to ratify and implement the World Intellectual Property Organization Internet Treaties and to reform its copyright law to provide more adequate and effective protection of copyrighted digital works. Most of the attention in the Report, however, was paid to China which was elevated from the Watch List to the Priority Watch List. The US warned of possible action against China in the World Trade Organization. Earlier this year, the International Anti-counterfeiting Coalition (IACC), a Washington DC-based association that represents US makers of drugs, clothing, cars, movies and software, had urged the USTR to designate Canada as a Priority Foreign Country because there had been "no movement by the Canadian Government to initiate any meaningful steps, through legislation or otherwise, to implement an effective IP enforcement system." In a recent column, Professor Michael Geist commented that the Special 301 Report has become an element in a widespread international campaign by the US to introduce linkage between its economic clout in trade agreements and the issue of greater IP protection, something that was largely absent from US policies as recently as the 1980s when Canada and the US negotiated NAFTA. Coincidentally, on May 4, 2005, RCMP officers seized thousands of counterfeit recordings and computer programs, worth an estimated $800,000, at a shopping plaza near Toronto. To view the text of the Special 301 Report, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?R22A13D0B For The Office of the USTR News Release, see: http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/Archive/2005/Apr/29-580129.html A related news story can be found at: http://makeashorterlink.com/?N23A41D0B To view the column by Prof Michael Geist, visit: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/resc/html_bkup/may92005.html Summary by: Clare McCurley