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and trademarks (denial of national treatment).
USTR has serious concerns about compliance with WTO obligations in certain other countries. However, WTO dispute settlement cases will not be initiated at this time. We hope that by providing additional time, these countries will take the steps necessary to bring them into compliance with their WTO obligations, thereby mitigating the need for the United States to initiate WTO dispute settlement proceedings. These countries include:
Greece: Many Greek TV stations broadcast U.S.-owned movies without authorization or payment of required compensation. Enforcement efforts by U.S. rightholders against such unauthorized TV broadcasts have been thwarted in a manner inconsistent with TRIPS enforcement provisions. However, the Government of Greece has begun taking steps which may correct this problem. The United States will request WTO dispute settlement consultations with respect to this matter by July 1 if TV piracy is not reduced satisfactorily in the interim.
Luxembourg: Similarly, Luxembourg has not amended its copyright law to comply with TRlPS obligations. Examples of non-compliance include absence of an anti-bootlegging provision, an inadequate term of protection for sound recordings, the absence of retroactive protection for sound recordings, absence of a rental right for sound recordings. The U.S. Government will initiate WTO dispute settlement procedures if Luxembourg has not complied with its TRlPS obligations by September 1997.
Special 301 Decisions
Under the "Special 301" provisions of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, Barshefsky today identified 46 trading partners that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property or deny fair and equitable market access to United States persons that rely upon intellectual property protection. She listed an additional 11 trading partners that will require monitoring.
In doing so, Barshefsky designated China for "Section 306 monitoring" to ensure that China complies with the obligations it has made the United States in bilateral intellectual property agreements. Section 306 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, authorizes the USTR to impose trade sanctions if the commitments of a bilateral agreement are not met. As noted above, significant progress on IPR enforcement is now beginning to occur in China.
Barshefsky announced placement of 10 trading partners on the special 301 "priority watch list." Four of these trading partners -- Ecuador, Greece, Paraguay, and Turkey -- will be subject to review during the course of the year to evaluate progress made in the next several months. Other trading partners on the priority watch list include Argentina, Ecuador, Egypt, the European Union, Greece, India, Indonesia, Paraguay, Russia and Turkey.
The USTR also announced placement of 36 trading partners on the special 301 "watch list," and that "out-of-cycle" reviews would be conducted with seven of these trading partners -- Bulgaria,
