consultations to resolve U.S. problems. Ambassador Kantor has determined that if satisfactory progress is not made with these countries in the next 60 days, or by June 30, that they will be identified as priority foreign countries and investigation of their practices will be initiated immediately. A review of some of the concerns with each of these countries is presented below.
Argentina has been on the priority watch list since April 1993 for failure to enact legislation providing full and effective patent protection. Patent legislation which would significantly upgrade Argentina's current patent law was introduced by the Government of Argentina in October 1991, but that legislation has not been enacted. This legislation, while generally good, contains a significant fault in that it contains a provision which might permit parallel importation.
China concluded an MOU in January 1992, thereby putting an end to the special 301 investigation initiated in 1991. China has fulfilled many of the commitments in that MOU, including joining international conventions on intellectual property, and enacting legislation to effect that level of protection in its national law. However, the Government of China has not followed through in effective enforcement and was placed on the priority watch list last year. Copyright piracy is particularly acute, and trademark infringement is also common. China also denies fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons that rely on intellectual property protection, including the U.S. recording and motion picture industries.
India was first identified as a "priority foreign country" in 1991. Although we were able to resolve some problems in the areas of trademark and copyright protection and enforcement, and market access for motion pictures, continued problems in these areas, and serious problems in the patent area led the USTR to identify India again in 1992. The persistence of those problems led to USTR identifying India again in 1993. India has made progress in improving the legal basis for copyright protection, but these changes have not yet been made. We encourage India to complete its own legislative process and follow through with effective enforcement. It is also important for India to continue to further improve trademark protection through the adoption of pending trademark legislation. We seek to reengage India in a meaningful dialogue with respect to these and other intellectual property issues, including patent protection, and we call on India to commit to early implementation of all aspects of the Uruguay Round TRIPS agreement.
