The Special 301 report addresses significant concerns with respect to such trading partners as Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela. In addition, the report notes that the United States will consider all options, including, but not limited to, initiation of dispute settlement consultations, in cases where countries do not appear to have implemented fully their obligations under the TRIPS Agreement.
In this year's review, USTR devotes special attention to the need for significantly improved enforcement against counterfeiting and piracy. We place particular emphasis on the ongoing campaign to reduce production of unauthorized copies of optical media products such as compact discs (CDs), video compact discs (VCDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs), and compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROMs), as well as on the counterfeiting of trademarked goods. Optical media piracy and trademark counterfeiting are increasing problems in many countries, including Brazil, Bulgaria, China, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam. At issue in these and other countries is the foreign governments' political will to effectively address piracy and counterfeiting. In addition, USTR continues to focus on other critically important issues, including Internet piracy, proper implementation of the TRIPS Agreement by developed and developing country WTO Members, and full implementation of TRIPS standards by new WTO Members at the time of their accession. USTR also continues to insist that other countries' government ministries use only authorized software.
Over the past year, many developing countries and newly acceding WTO Members have made progress toward implementing their TRIPS obligations. Nevertheless, full implementation of TRIPS Agreement obligations has yet to be achieved in certain countries, particularly with respect to the TRIPS Agreement's enforcement provisions. Levels of piracy and counterfeiting of intellectual property remain unacceptably high in these countries. The annual Special 301 review provides an opportunity to assess these issues, and the Special 301 Report sends a necessary message to the governments of countries where serious IPR-related problems exist.
The United States is committed to a policy of promoting increased intellectual property protection. In this regard, we are making progress in advancing the protection of these rights through a variety of mechanisms, including through the negotiation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The intellectual property chapters of the FTAs provide for higher levels of intellectual property protection in a number of areas covered by the TRIPS Agreement. We are pleased that the recent FTAs with Morocco and Australia will strengthen the protection of IPR in those countries. When the pending Bahrain FTA and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) (with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic) are adopted, we look forward to seeing strengthened IPR regimes in those countries as well. We are also seeking higher levels of protection and enforcement in the FTAs that are currently under negotiation with Panama, Thailand, the Southern Africa Customs Union, the Andean countries, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, and in the ongoing negotiation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas. Another opportunity we are using to strengthen the protection and enforcement of intellectual property is the increasing number of Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) negotiations with several countries in regions such as the Middle East and Asia.
