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April 26, 1991

Ambassador Carla A. Hills, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), announced today the Administration's decisions with respect to this year's annual review under the so-called "Special 301" intellectual property provisions of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. These provisions provide a statutory framework to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of protection of intellectual property rights and market access provided by our trading partners.

The objective of Special 301 is 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 that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights, or deny fair and equitable market access for U.S. persons relying on intellectual property protection, and to determine which of those countries are priority foreign countries. Priority foreign countries are those countries whose practices are the most egregious and have the greatest adverse impact, actual or potential, on U.S. products, and who are not making significant progress in bilateral or multilateral intellectual property negotiations.

Under the Special 301 provisions, if a country is identified as a priority foreign country, the USTR must, within 30 days of identification, initiate a section 301 investigation of the policies and practices that were the basis of the identification and are not already the subject of a 301 investigation. If an investigation is initiated, it must be concluded within six months. This period may be extended to nine months, if certain statutory criteria are met. At the end of the investigation period, the USTR must decide whether the measures under investigation are actionable, and if so, decide what response is appropriate, including possible retaliation.

USTR may identify a country as a priority foreign country at any time that the facts warrant or may remove a country's identification at any time.