The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) on Tuesday announced it would remove Taiwan from the "Special 301" Priority Watch List and place it on the less stringent Watch List in recognition of the nation's progress in protecting intellectual property rights (IPR).
In the report, the USTR said Taiwan had made "significant progress" in cracking down on commercial piracy and had bolstered its IPR-protection legislation over the past year.
Taiwan has been on the "priority watch list" for four consecutive years.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said that Taiwan's efforts in cracking down on piracy over the past year had been commendable.
The progress Taiwan has made in improving its IPR environment includes the passage of a revision to the Copyright Law (
However, Zoellick also said that Taiwan could do a better job in protecting the data exclusivity of pharmaceutical products, since the US thinks that IPR threats still exist in the area.
Pharmaceutical data exclusivity refers to the legal protection of the results of efficacy and safety tests conducted by pharmaceutical firms before they receive government approval for the drugs.
The report also suggested that Taiwan should continue to strengthen IPR laws pertaining to agrochemical products, and crack down on unauthorized Internet music-file downloading and other commercial piracy.
Tsai Lien-sheng (
"We are working on addressing the issues that concern the US ... with amendments to related laws that are expected to be passed, I'm confident that Taiwan can be removed completely from the Watch List," Tsai said.
Concerns over protection of the data exclusivity of pharmaceutical products, for example, may be resolved soon, with the legislature last week preliminarily passing amendments to the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law (
Tsai said the new amendments grant a five-year protection period to test and study results for new drugs. The amendments also provide a three-year protection period for improvements to existing products.
Hoping that the USTR will remove Taiwan from the Special 301 watch list altogether in April when it conducts its annual review, the ministry will speed up drafting of laws to regulate online IPR infringement, Tsai added.
As the government has stopped using the Export Management Systems to screen for pirated disks, Tsai said the office will transfer the budget and resources into the training of a task force to clamp down on physical and virtual piracy, hoping to lower Taiwan's piracy rate from 43 percent to under 40 percent this year.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS