That’s going to be the lede for many reporters writing about the latest Special 301 Report issued today by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. This is the 20th annual report, which each year lists troublesome countries regarding IP enforcement, in different tiers. This year Canada was elevated — or lowered, depending on your perspective — to the most troublesome tier, Priority Watch List.

As Ambassador Kirk put it in USTR’s press release:

Today’s Special 301 Report guides our efforts to protect American innovation and creativity around the world. Our creative and innovative products can hit the global marketplace sometimes with just a keystroke. If we and our trading partners are not vigilant in protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights, they can vanish just as quickly.

Canada has for more than a decade now completely ignored their international treaty obligations, declining to incorporate those IP enforcement commitments into law. USTR cited this and also mentioned “continuing concern about weak border enforcement.”

Speaking at the World IP summit hosted by the Institute for Policy Innovation in D.C. today, Kira Alvarez, chief negotiator for intellectual property enforcement and Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, noted Canada’s new status. “We really do want them to adhere to their intellectual property obligations.” She noted two other Priority Watch List countries, China and Russia, continue to be highly troublesome. Kirk said he was “particularly troubled by reports that Chinese officials are urging more lenient enforcement of IPR laws,” and Alvarez said that with rising manufacturing and innovation in China, that is an illogical path.

Alvarez and the USTR press release, however, praised Korea, which for the first time is not on any of the watch lists. The Korean government has made IP protection a priority, which of course benefits Korean industries as well as imports to their country. Still, USTR said it will “continue to monitor closely the ongoing problem of Internet piracy in Korea, and will be prepared to consider returning Korea to the Watch List in the future if it does not respond effectively to this challenge through its implementation of newly enacted legislation and other steps.”

There are 12 U.S. trading partners on the Priority Watch List, so Canada joins the august company of China, Russia, Algeria, Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand, and Venezuela. The USTR will conduct “particularly intense engagement through bilateral discussion” with these twelve. That means Canada is worse at IP enforcement than Priority Watch List countries such as Belarus, Lebanon, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. Ouch. An total of 33 trading partners are on the Watch List, which will also merit bilateral talks.

Kudos to Ambassador Kirk, who also said this:

As U.S. right holders, businesses, and workers suffer losses from international piracy, counterfeiting, and other forms of IPR theft, the Special 301 Report provides a critical policy tool for focusing on urgent problems that undermine one of America’s great strengths in the global economy – our innovation and creativity. In this time of economic uncertainty, we need to redouble our efforts to work with all of our trading partners – even our closest allies and neighbors such as Canada – to enhance protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the context of a rules-based trading system.

I hope Ambassador Kirk isn’t becoming embarrassed at my frequent, effusive praise of his leadership, but then again, he’s asking for it with the recognition of him and his entire USTR team of the importance of IP promotion and protection in the global economy.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 12:59 pm by Patrick Ross and is filed under Obama, copyright law, international, piracy, property rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.