USTR Annual Report On Trade Barriers Highlights IPR Rights And Wrongs

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today (30 March) issued its annual National Trade Estimate report pointing fingers at trading partners’ practices it sees as barriers to US trade. And the treatment of intellectual property in countries like India is high on the list. But the report also goes to lengths to praise progress in countries too.

The report, available here, finds fault with US trading partners of all sizes, and also piles on praise. For instance, according to a USTR fact sheet about the report.

But it also uses the trade estimate report to tout the completed negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP), which it would like to see passed in Congress.

In the report, major trading partners, such as Argentina, Brazil and Canada, are criticized for not doing enough on intellectual property rights.

On India, the fact sheet states the good and the bad in US eyes:

“Intellectual Property Rights Concerns: India remained on the Priority Watch List in the 2015 Special 301 Report because of concerns regarding weak protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR). India is in the process of undertaking an examination of its current IPR environment and is in the final stages of developing a National IPR Policy that offers the opportunity to provide more clarity and resolve long-standing IPR challenges for stakeholders. However, despite meaningful progress on discreet IPR issues of the past year, India has yet to undertake the reforms necessary to achieve India’s innovation, creative and investment goals. To advance IPR related work, in 2015 the United States and India committed to an IPR work plan for 2016 that includes continued work on copyright, trade secrets, trademarks, and patents.”

On China, the fact sheet states positively:

“IP/Trade Secrets:  China announced several efforts to revise China’s trade secrets system, including through changes to its civil judicial system.  In early 2016, China also published draft revisions to its Anti-Unfair Competition Law for public comment that contain revisions with respect to trade secrets.”

But the full report states:

And with China, the IPR section of the report alone is two full pages. It covers: trade secrets, pharmaceutical patents and market access, software piracy, online piracy, and counterfeit goods.

On Canada, it explains how Canada’s implementation of the TPP will fix problems with IP rights:

With each country throughout the report, it could be said that the report representatives what US officials will want to discuss this year when they meet with their counterparts from each country.