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United States Trade Representative (USTR) Carla A. Hills announced today the action the Administration will take pursuant to the so-called "Special 301" intellectual property provisions of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. Those provisions call for the development of an overall strategy to ensure adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights.

The Special 301 authority was designed to enhance the Administration's ability to negotiate improvements in foreign intellectual property regimes through bilateral and/or multilateral initiatives. Specifically, the statute requires the USTR to identify those foreign countries denying protection of intellectual property rights and market access to U.S. firms relying on such protection, and to determine which of those countries are "priority countries," triggering an accelerated six month investigation. However, where countries are entering into, or making significant progress in, good faith negotiations, the USTR is precluded by the statute from identifying them as priority countries.

Because of significant progress made in various negotiations, the Administration has identified no "priority countries" under Special 301. Rather, the Administration has singled out 25 countries whose practices deserve special attention; 17 of those countries will be placed on a, while the remaining 8 trading partners will be placed on a :

Action plans for resolving outstanding issues have been developed for each of the eight trading partners on the Priority Watch List; their status under Special 301 will again be reviewed no later than November 1, 1989.

The announced action underscores the Congressional finding that international protection of intellectual property rights is vital to U.S. competitiveness. The denial of such protection is not only harmful to the economic interests of the United States, it undermines the creativity, invention and investment that are essential to economic and technological growth in all countries.