US keeps India on list of nations with IP concerns, with China and Canada

US agency charged with safeguarding America’s IP-driven exports has retained India on a list of trading partner countries that it determined had the “most difficult, longstanding or deteriorating” IP environment this year, 2017, along with 11 others including China and Canada.

India “remains on the priority watch list this year,” an official of the agency, the US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) said at the release of a congressionallymandated annual report called Special 301 for 2018 Friday.

The official listed out the reasons as “policies related to IP (intellectual property) in pharmaceutical, ineffective enforcement and ineffective actions to combat piracy and counterfeiting, copyright policies that do not properly incentivize the creation and commercialization of content nd outdated and insufficient trade secrets legal framework”.

The USTR has three lists of violators. The most egregious ones figure in the Priority Foreign Country, Priority Watch List and Watch List. There were no entries for the first, there 12 including India in the second and 24 in the third.

China is at the top of all trade and related actions of the Trump administration with the Special 201 listing coming just weeks after a Section 301 investigation that determined China was discriminating against US companies, was forcing to part with technology and was just stealing them.

This year’s Special 301 was harsh on Canada, a close ally and a a northern neighbor that has been in the cross-hairs of the Trump administration. It was demoted from the Watch List to the Priority Watch List.

India has been on the Priority Watch List for years mostly on account of clashing definition and priorities regarding IP rules for pharmaceuticals.