IIPA’s submission discusses copyright protection, enforcement, and market access problems in 60 countries/territories, of which it recommends that 45 be placed on an appropriate USTR list.

The Alliance report also discusses piracy and market access problems in an additional 15 countries, but is not recommending that these countries be placed on any formal list.

Speaking with regard to the recommendations contained in the report, IIPA’s co-founder, Eric H. Smith noted that:

“The annual Special 301 process continues to be the primary means for the US copyright industries to advise US government agencies about the principal impediments to adequate and effective protection in global markets. Many of the key markets around the world that are infected with high levels of copyright piracy or deny effective market access to copyright industries."

"The unwillingness of the countries identified in our submission to curb high rates of piracy – in most countries, through more effective and deterrent enforcement – saps the US economy of the high-paying jobs and strong growth rates that make this sector critical to the health of the US economy."

"China and Russia are again this year the two countries that are of the greatest concern to the copyright industries, as they were in 2006. While there have been developments in both these key markets over the year, the bottom line is that piracy levels have not come down at all or only marginally, and some problems have grown worse.”

In light of the recent signing of a US-Russia IPR Agreement, under which Russia committed to take action with respect to the principal issues that IIPA has raised in recent years, the Association recommended that the USTR keep Russia on the Priority Watch List, but review that status later in the year to examine Russia’s compliance with its obligations.

IIPA recommended that the People’s Republic of China also remain on the Priority Watch List, arguing that:

"Engagement with China has been multifaceted over the entire year and China has taken many new initiatives. Unfortunately, again this year, these campaigns and enforcement actions have had little deterrent effect in the actual marketplace and piracy rates remain at continuing high levels. IIPA has spelled out exactly what it believes China must do, including taking deterrent “criminal” actions against pirates for whom the usual small fines are meaningless."

"One positive development has been the long-awaited adoption of regulations governing the Internet which are generally good but remain to be implemented. So far, it is clear that the Chinese government has not devoted sufficient resources to combat rapidly advancing Internet piracy and needs to further clarify underlying legal rules and enforcement procedures, as well as to expand the opportunity for US copyright based industries to offer legitimate materials to the Chinese public."

The IIPA report recommended that an additional 14 countries be placed on the Priority Watch List in 2007, for a total of 16 countries: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, India, Israel, Mexico, the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.

IIPA asked the USTR to place (or maintain) 28 countries/territories on the Watch List. New countries which IIPA would like to see added to the Watch List this year include Spain, Greece, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Kazakhstan. It also called for continued monitoring of Paraguay:

The IIPA requested that USTR later this year conduct out-of-cycle reviews of seven countries to evaluate their progress on the issues identified in this submission: Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan and Switzerland.

The IIPA report discussed serious piracy or law reform problems in 15 additional countries, and recommended that USTR press copyright-related concerns identified in these IIPA reports during the course of ongoing bilateral engagements. IIPA is not, however, recommending these countries for placement on a Special 301 list.

This includes four countries where IIPA has identified outstanding FTA implementation issues – Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco and Singapore.