MUMBAI: Five countries -- Egypt, South Korea, Kuwait, Pakistan and Turkey -- have made it into the US's priority watch list for intellectual property theft. This was revealed in an annual report published by the US Trade Representative's (USTR) office. The list lowered Poland to its regular watch list.
Other trading partners on the USTR's priority watch list include Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Philippines, Russia and Taiwan.
According to the report, the economic damage caused by the counterfeiting to the legitimate companies whose products are counterfeited is enormous. Losses to U.S. industries alone are estimated at $200 to $250 billion per year.
The United States Monday urged dozens of nations to crack down on counterfeiting of goods such as compact discs and drugs that it said robs U.S. companies of up to $250 billion each year, said reports.
Other key conclusions USTR has reached include:
* There are problems with copyright and patent protections in 52 countries.
* Ukraine, the country that repeatedly failed to protect US compact discs, DVDs and computer software from piracy, gets the worst ranking. The United States will maintain sanctions on $75 million worth of Ukraine's exports because of the piracy.
* China and Paraguay, which are already under the 'special 306 monitoring' category will now face sanctions if either country lags in its protection of the US intellectual property rights.
