copyright and trademark infringement cases. We encourage the Dominican Republic to improve its enforcement regime to solve the broadcast piracy problem and deter other copyright infringements more effectively in the near future, as well as to focus its efforts on ensuring an expeditious resolution of pending criminal cases. Finally, we urge the Dominican Republic to be vigilant in submitting legislation, enhancing IPR enforcement, providing training, and making other necessary preparations to meet its FTA obligations. The United States will continue to work with the Dominican Republic to strengthen its IPR regime, particularly in the context of CAFTA-DR.
ECUADOR
Ecuador has made minimal progress in improving its IPR regime over the last year, and it will remain on the Watch List in 2005. Although Ecuador generally has an adequate IPR law, enforcement of the law remains a central problem. Enforcement of copyrights is a significant problem, especially with respect to sound recordings, computer software, and illegal commercial photocopying of books. The U.S. copyright industry reports high piracy levels due to insufficient IPR enforcement by Ecuador, including poor border controls, infrequent ex officio raids, and limited government resources dedicated to anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting activities. Music piracy has become so severe that the majority of international record companies have closed their offices in Ecuador. Even though Ecuador's current substantive copyright legislation has been modernized in line with its international obligations, Ecuador's judicial system remains deficient because the courts appear unwilling to enforce the law. The Ecuadorian Government has not yet established the specialized intellectual property courts required by its IPR law. Petitions for civil ex parte actions are brought before civil courts, delaying or preventing seizure orders for pirated or counterfeit products. Concerns also remain over Ecuador's current lack of effective protection for undisclosed test data submitted for marketing approval of pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products. The United States urges Ecuador to strengthen enforcement of IPR and will closely monitor Ecuador's efforts to address IPR-related concerns.
EUROPEAN UNION
For several years, including in 2004, the EU was on the Priority Watch List primarily because of its lack of willingness to address deficiencies in EU Regulation 2081/92 ("EU GI Regulation"), which governs the protection of geographical indications (GIs) for agricultural products and foodstuffs in the EU, as well as lack of full implementation of the EU Biotech Directive by EU member states. In 1999, the United States initiated dispute settlement consultations with the EU, on the grounds that the EU GI Regulation was inconsistent with the EU's obligations under TRIPS. After consultations failed to resolve the dispute, it was referred to a WTO dispute settlement panel in 2003. The resulting panel report, finding in favor of the United States that the EU GI Regulation impermissibly discriminates against U.S. products and producers, was adopted by the WTO dispute settlement body on April 20, 2005. The United States expects that the EU will now implement the recommendations and rulings of the dispute settlement panel, consistent with WTO rules. We are lowering the EU from the Priority Watch List to the Watch List in 2005, with the expectation that the EU will now implement these recommendations and rulings. However, the United States plans to initiate an out-of-cycle review to monitor developments in connection with the EU's application of the EU GI Regulation and the EU's implementation of the WTO dispute settlement panel's recommendation and rulings. In
