The United States Trade Representative (USTR) published “Special 301 Report” (PDF), in which it removed Uzbekistan from its intellectual property watch list. The country was added to the list in 2000.

Special 301 Report is an annual review of “the global state of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement.” The USTR has conducted the monitoring since 1989 under the US Trade Act. USTR assessed more than 100 trading partners for the new report, including 20 on the Watch List and 7 on the Priority Watch List. Being on these lists, according to the USTR, indicates serious shortcomings of the country in the field of intellectual property rights.

“Uzbekistan was removed from the watch list this year due to sustained progress in resolving long-standing issues related to the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights,” the report says.

USTR stated that in February, Uzbekistan adopted amendments to the Customs Code that give customs authorities the right to suspend the import and export of counterfeit products. The country approved the Intellectual Property Development Strategy for 2022-2026, and in 2019 acceded to the Performances and Phonograms Treaty and the Copyright Treaty adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization. USTR also highlighted the efforts of the Uzbek authorities starting in 2021 to transfer government agencies to licensed programs.

“The United States also recognizes the continued high-level political attention to intellectual property, including Uzbekistan’s support and participation in the intellectual property working group of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between the United States and Central Asian countries,” the report says.

USTR emphasized that the United States will continue to work with Uzbekistan and will “closely monitor” the implementation of amendments to the Customs Code and the transition to licensing programs in the government. In addition, the US called for action to eliminate the growing counterfeit products in the country.

The Ministry of Justice of Uzbekistan called the country’s exclusion from the list the result of systematic work.

“Today’s results are the fruit of systematic work over the past five years, which was carried out in the direction of simplifying procedures for registering intellectual property, effectively protecting their rights, joining international agreements and developing external relations, as well as implementing the requirements of the WTO agreement on trade-related aspects of rights into national legislation intellectual property rights (TRIPS),” the Ministry of Justice said.

Of the Central Asian countries, only Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were on the Watch List, the department added.