- Bulgaria has been removed from the Watch List due to improvements in IPR enforcement efforts and passage of IPR legislation in response to heightened engagement with the United States.
- Croatia has been removed from the Watch List due to improvements in IPR enforcement and passage of IPR legislation in response to heightened engagement with the United States.
- The European Union (EU) has been removed from the Watch List, principally as a result of the EU's adoption of new regulations concerning geographical indications (GIs) following an adverse ruling by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body in April 2005. While the United States maintains certain concerns with respect to the EU's implementation of the revised GI rules, these will continue to be addressed outside the Special 301 context. The United States looks forward to continued cooperation with the EU on this and other intellectual property matters, including EU border enforcement and other IP initiatives.
- Latvia has been removed from the Watch List at the conclusion of an Out-of-Cycle Review in recognition of Latvia's improvements in IPR enforcement.
The United States commends this positive progress by our trading partners. The United States will continue to work with these and other countries to achieve further improvements in IPR protection and enforcement during the coming year.
Free Trade Agreements and Implementation
The United States is committed to promoting strong intellectual property rights through a variety of mechanisms, including the negotiation of free trade agreements (FTAs), which contain intellectual property chapters that establish strong protections for copyrights, patents, and trademarks, as well as rules for enforcement.
The United States is pleased to have worked together with many countries to strengthen IPR protection and enforcement through bilateral and multilateral FTAs. Agreements concluded in recent years include the Republic of Korea FTA (KORUS FTA), Panama Trade Promotion Agreement, Bahrain FTA, Oman FTA, Morocco FTA, the Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, the Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, and the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) which covers Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. In regions such as the Middle East and Asia, the United States has used an increasing number of trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA) negotiations to enhance intellectual property protection and enforcement.
Following the conclusion of these agreements, the United States continues to work closely with our trading partners to implement FTA obligations under domestic law. Over the past year, the United States has engaged in this process with Australia, Singapore, Morocco, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, and parties to CAFTA-DR.
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