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2018 Special 301 Report

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2018 Special 301 Report 2018 Special 301 Report Office of the United States Trade Representative ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is responsible for the preparation of this Report. United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer gratefully acknowledges the contributions of staff to the writing and production of this Report and extends his thanks to partner agencies, including the following Departments and agencies: State; Treasury; Justice; Agriculture; Commerce, including the International Trade Administration and the Patent and Trademark Office; Labor; Health and Human Services, including the Food and Drug Administration; Homeland Security, including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center; and the United States Agency for International Development. USTR also recognizes the contributions of the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, as well as those of the United States Copyright Office. In preparing the Report, substantial information was solicited from U.S. embassies around the world, from U.S. Government agencies, and from interested stakeholders. The draft of this Report was developed through the Special 301 Subcommittee of the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 5 SECTION I: Developments in Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Enforcement, and Related Market Access ................................................................................................................................................... 12 SECTION II: Country Reports ...................................................................................................................... 38 PRIORITY WATCH LIST ................................................................................................................... 38 CHINA ............................................................................................................................................... 38 INDONESIA ...................................................................................................................................... 47 INDIA ................................................................................................................................................. 49 ALGERIA .......................................................................................................................................... 52 KUWAIT ............................................................................................................................................ 53 RUSSIA .............................................................................................................................................. 54 UKRAINE .......................................................................................................................................... 56 ARGENTINA ..................................................................................................................................... 58 CANADA............................................................................................................................................ 60 CHILE ................................................................................................................................................ 62 COLOMBIA ...................................................................................................................................... 63 VENEZUELA .................................................................................................................................... 64 WATCH LIST ....................................................................................................................................... 65 THAILAND ....................................................................................................................................... 65 VIETNAM .......................................................................................................................................... 66 PAKISTAN ........................................................................................................................................ 67 TAJIKISTAN .................................................................................................................................... 67 TURKMENISTAN ............................................................................................................................ 67 UZBEKISTAN ................................................................................................................................... 68 EGYPT ............................................................................................................................................... 69 LEBANON ......................................................................................................................................... 69 SAUDI ARABIA ................................................................................................................................ 70 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES .......................................................................................................... 70 GREECE ............................................................................................................................................ 72 ROMANIA ......................................................................................................................................... 72 SWITZERLAND ............................................................................................................................... 73 TURKEY ............................................................................................................................................ 73 MEXICO ............................................................................................................................................ 75 COSTA RICA .................................................................................................................................... 76 3 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC................................................................................................................ 76 GUATEMALA ................................................................................................................................... 77 BARBADOS ....................................................................................................................................... 78 JAMAICA .......................................................................................................................................... 78 BOLIVIA ............................................................................................................................................ 79 BRAZIL.............................................................................................................................................. 79 ECUADOR ......................................................................................................................................... 80 PERU .................................................................................................................................................. 81 ANNEX 1: Special 301 Statutory Basis .......................................................................................................... 82 ANNEX 2: U.S. Government-Sponsored Technical Assistance and Capacity Building .......................... 83 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A top trade priority for the Administration is to use all possible sources of leverage to encourage other countries to open their markets to U.S. exports of goods and services, and provide adequate and effective protection and enforcement of U.S. intellectual property (IP) rights. Toward this end, a key objective of the Administration’s trade policy is ensuring that U.S. owners of IP have a full and fair opportunity to use and profit from their IP around the globe. The Special 301 Report (Report) is the result of an annual review of the state of IP protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world, which the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) conducts pursuant to Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, and the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. § 2242). The Report reflects the resolve of this Administration to call out foreign countries and expose the laws, policies, and practices that fail to provide adequate and effective IP protection and enforcement for U.S. inventors, creators, brands, manufacturers, and service providers. The identification of the countries and IP-related market access barriers in this Report and of steps necessary to address those barriers are a critical component of the Administration’s aggressive efforts to defend Americans from harmful IP-related trade barriers. The Report identifies foreign trading partners where IP protection and enforcement has deteriorated or remained at inadequate levels and where U.S. persons who rely on IP protection have difficulty with fair and equitable market access. For example: • USTR continues to place China on the Priority Watch List
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