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US puts India under trade dept scrutiny list

The Clinton Administration has made two major moves against India in the sphere of trade, including placing New Delhi on the US trade department's Special 301 priority watch list for a higher level of monitoring of its intellectual property protection regime.

The US is apparently dissatisfied with India's intellectual property protection regime, particularly its enforcement machinery, subjecting US motion picture industry to annual loss of $ 66 million due to audio-visual piracy alone.

The United States also decided to involve the World Trade Organisation or WTO in its disputes with India, concerning measures restricting foreign auto imports and foreign investment in the country's auto industry.

US Trade Representative or USTR Charlene Barshefsky made these announcements on Monday.

The reason held out for approaching WTO dispute-settlement panel is the delay in the dispute with India covering measures governing investment in the automotive industry, such as requiring manufacturing firms to use, among other things, specified levels of local content.

India is not alone in the USTR watch list. Fifteen other trading partners on the US trade department's Special 301 priority watch list, are Argentina, the Dominican Republic, the European Union, Egypt, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Malaysia, Peru, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

The announcements came as USTR filed the annual reports under the Special 301 provision of US trade law (concerning inadequate protection of copyrights and patents) and under executive order for 'Title VII' (concerning unfair procurement trade barriers) and ''Super 301'' (concerning other unfair trade barriers). US finds fault with implementation of India's intellectual property protection regime.

Unlike some previous year, this year USTR did not officially designate any priority countries or practices for investigation under the statute and executive orders. Instead USTR used the occasion to announce relevant decisions about the WTO actions and to report the status of other related issues.

The USTR 2000 National Trade Estimate Report on foreign trade barriers says cable piracy continues to be a significant problem, with estimates of tens of thousands of illegal systems in operation in India at this time.

The widespread copyright infringement has a significant detrimental effect on all motion picture market segments -- theatrical, home video and television -- in India. For instance, pirated videos are available in major cities before their local theatrical release, it says.

The report says India's patent protection is weak and has adverse effects on US pharmaceutical and chemical firms. Many US-invented drugs are widely reproduced in India since product patent protection is not available.

US agrochemical industries have joined other industries' concern with respect to India's tnadequate intellectual property protection. As a result, industries have withheld marketing and production of produce compounds in India, it says.

UNI

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