WASHINGTON, May 1: Pakistan remains on the United States watch list of trading partners for violations of intellectual property rights, according to the US Trade Representative’s annual report on the issue released on Tuesday.

But the European Union (EU) and 14 other trading partners, including India, are placed on a priority watch list, which entails a higher level of scrutiny. The 12 other countries mentioned in this context are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Philippines, Russia, Taiwan and Uruguay.

New to the priority list in 2002 are Brazil and Colombia. Costa Rica, South Korea and Malaysia were taken off the priority watch list and placed on the watch list. Macau was removed from the watch lists altogether due to its ongoing enforcement efforts.

Intellectual property rights protection in Ukraine, the report said, remained inadequate and the situation in Brazil had worsened over the past year while both Macau and South Korea had improved their enforcement records.