Trade Representative, Office of United States January 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) received petitions in September 2004 to review certain practices in certain beneficiary developing countries to determine whether such countries are in compliance with the ATPA eligibility criteria. In a November 15, 2004 notice, USTR published a list of responsive petitions that were accepted for review. This notice specifies the results of the preliminary review of those petitions as well as the status of the petitions filed in 2003 that have remained under review.

Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Trade Act) (19 U.S.C. 2242), requires the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to identify countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection. (Section 182 is commonly referred to as the ``Special 301'' provision of the Trade Act.) In addition, USTR is required to determine which of those countries should be identified as Priority Foreign Countries. Acts, policies, or practices that are the basis of a country's identification as a priority foreign country are normally the subject of an investigation under the Section 301 provisions of the Trade Act. Section 182 of the Trade Act contains a special rule for the identification of actions by Canada affecting United States cultural industries. USTR requests written submissions from the public concerning foreign countries' acts, policies, and practices that are relevant to the decision whether to identify particular trading partners under Section 182 of the Trade Act.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (``USTR'') is providing notice that the European Communities has requested dispute settlement consultations under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement''). That request may be found at https://www.wto.org contained in a document designated as WT/DS108/27. USTR invites written comments from the public concerning the issues raised in this dispute.