Identification of Countries Under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974: Request for Public Comment on Out-of-Cycle Review of the People's Republic of China

요약

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 (IPRs) or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection. In addition, USTR is required to determine which of those countries should be identified as Priority Foreign Countries. Section 182 is commonly referred to as the "Special 301" provision of the Trade Act. The People's Republic of China (China) was designated a Priority Foreign Country in 1994, and has subsequently remained subject to monitoring under Section 306 of the Trade Act (19 U.S.C. 2416). On May 3, 2004, USTR announced the results of the 2004 Special 301 review and stated that an Out-of-Cycle Review (OCR) would be conducted in early 2005 to assess China's actions to implement effectively the commitments it undertook under the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), its WTO commitments, and a 1995 bilateral intellectual property agreement with the United States (including additional commitments made in 1996). USTR will examine whether China's a