The European Commission has just published the Third Country Report.

The main objective of this Report is to identify third countries in which the state of IPR protection and enforcement gives rise to the greatest level of concern and establish an updated list of so called ‘priority countries’, split into three categories:

Priority 1: China
Priority 2: India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine
Priority 3: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Thailand

China continues to be a Priority 1 country because of the dominant share of counterfeit and pirated goods arriving in the EU, in terms of both value and volume. More than 80% of the seizures of counterfeit and pirated goods by EU customs authorities originate from China and Hong Kong.

In addition, the Report dedicates a section to some countries with which the EU has already concluded or is about to conclude free trade agreements and where there is a particular need to monitor the IP situation. This category includes Canada, South Korea, Mexico and Vietnam.

The Commission will also closely monitor the situation in other countries where IP enforcement gives rise to concerns, such as Israel, Morocco, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Furthermore, the Report includes details of the different EU activities in the context of IPR, such as the EU Funded programmes.