Parliamentary question - E-007816/2012Parliamentary question
E-007816/2012

The United States Special 301 Reports in relation to the Single Market

Question for written answer E-007816/2012
to the Commission
Rule 117
Amelia Andersdotter (Verts/ALE)

Every year since 1989, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has drafted a ‘Special 301 Report’ evaluating the intellectual property rights frameworks of third countries. Countries identified in the Special 301 Reports as ‘priority foreign countries’ may be subject to trade retaliation from the US Government until such time as it is satisfied that intellectual property rights protection is adequate.

It has come to my attention that the United States still places individual European Union Member States on these lists, even as priority foreign countries. Although the Dispute Settlement Board (DSB) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), in case DS 152, determined that no sanctions could be imposed by the US except after approval from the DSB, there are still clear tendencies, remaining from the 1990s and the 2000s, to use the reports as a soft-law tool. In relation to the Member States, this suggests a means for the United States Trade Representative to influence, and fragment, the development of the internal market.

What is the Commission currently doing to ensure that soft-law tools used by foreign governments do not end up hindering the prosperity and harmonisation of the single market?

More specifically, what is the Commission doing to ensure that the Special 301 Reports are not used to fragment the single market?

OJ C 308 E, 23/10/2013