EU Returns to Special 301 Report’s Watch List for First Time Since 2006

On April 30, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released this year’s Special 301 Report, which surveys the effectiveness of intellectual property (IP) rights and enforcement abroad and identifies foreign nations where IP protections are uncertain or disregarded. The 2026 report marks the first time in 13 years that a Priority Foreign Country (PFC) has been named, with Vietnam being identified as a PFC for persistent failures to address several long-standing IP concerns. The USTR has also added the European Union (EU) to the Special 301 Report’s Watch List, the first time since 2006 that the continental government has been identified for IP-related concerns in addition to individual European nations.

EU’s Strategic Use of GIs Limits Market Access for U.S. Food, Agriculture Producers

Assessing global developments in IP rights enforcement and related market access, the USTR noted several positive developments taking place around the world, including South Korea’s amendments to its Copyright Act clarifying that knowingly posting links to infringing content online constitutes copyright infringement. The USTR also highlighted Argentina repealing unduly broad limitations on subject matter eligibility that prevented patent rights for categories of pharmaceutical inventions patentable in other nations.

Persistent IP issues with global impact include trademark counterfeiting that infects supply chains from several source countries including China, India, South Korea and Turkey. The Special 301 report also identifies a series of 13 transit hub nations that enable source countries to introduce goods into the global market including Singapore, Peru, Chile, and the United Arab Emirates. Of particular concern are pharmaceutical counterfeits, which are aided by the rise of illicit online pharmacies, which represent up to 75% of all web-based drug merchants. The Special 301 Report further underscored the myriad of methods being used for digital piracy of copyrighted content such as stream-ripping software, which creates infringing copies from licensed streaming sites, and camcording, or the recording of new or upcoming movie releases that is then released through illicit streaming platforms.

One area of IP-related concern helping to land the EU on the Special 301 Report’s Watch List is geographical indications, which reduce market access for many U.S. trademark owners dealing in food and agricultural goods that use common names like parmesan or feta. Concerningly, many GIs have been granted to provide exclusive rights to European producers despite U.S. trademark rights in the same branded goods, like havarti or danbo cheeses, that predate the GI grant. Often, European GI holders are able to block foreign goods that evoke a GI, giving the EU the ability to strategically block market access and contributing to the United States’ significant trade deficit in food and agricultural products.

In cheese alone, the EU exported $1.2 billion in products to the U.S. in 2025, whereas U.S. cheese producers only exported $19.4 million of cheese to the EU. In response to the EU’s aggressive promotion of GI policies, including the 2015 expansion of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Lisbon Agreement to include GI protections, the Special 301 Report notes that the U.S. has entered into reciprocal trade agreements with nine nations preserving market access for U.S. meat and cheese producers.

USTR Will Consider Investigation of Vietnam Over PFC Designation

A pair of legislative developments raising concerns for IP owners also contributed to the EU’s inclusion in this year’s Watch List. Last December’s provisional agreement on the EU General Pharmaceutical Legislation (GPL) created market entry conditions some stakeholders called unreasonable, including reduced protections against commercial uses of data submitted for market approval and conditioning restoration of protection terms based upon a drugmaker’s ability to conduct clinical trials within the EU. The USTR also noted stakeholder issues with the EU’s Digital Services Act, which became fully applicable in February 2024 and established a framework modifying the eligibility threshold for liability under the EU’s e-Commerce Directive.

Vietnam’s failure to address online piracy issues despite being the home to cyberlockers and copyright infringement websites serving a global audience. Even when certain infringement sources are addressed, such as when Vietnamese authorities ordered the shutdown of piracy library 2Embed in July 2023, other Vietnam-based infringement sites like MegaCloud have filled the void, driving up that country’s ranking as a top source of piracy. Although criminal prosecutions for copyright infringement have seen an uptick in recent years, Vietnamese courts routinely impose fines that are well below the maximum penalty available under Vietnamese law.

The reorganization of Vietnam’s national government in 2025, which transferred IP enforcement responsibilities from the Market Surveillance Agency (MSA) to local authorities, created enforcement gaps reported to the USTR by numerous stakeholders. Other long-standing IP issues unaddressed by the Vietnamese government include lack of ex officio authority for custom officials to seize suspected counterfeit shipments, lack of enforcement efforts against unlicensed software uses, and the lack of criminal laws or decrees against cable and satellite signal theft. As a consequence of the PFC designation, the USTR will determine by the end of May whether to initiate an investigation pursuant to Section 302 of the Trade Act of 1974, codified at 19 U.S.C. § 2412.