The Office of US Trade Representative, in its 2026 Special 301 Report, has kept Thailand on the IP watch list along with 17 other countries, Auramon Supthaweethum, director general of the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP), disclosed today.
The other countries grouped in the same league are Algeria, Argentina, Barbados, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Ecuador, Egypt, European Union, Guatemala, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Türkiye.
Auramon said that, this year, the USTR had tightened up its assessments of the performance of its trading partners regarding IP protection and had identified Vietnam as Priority Foreign Country (PFC), marking the first time in 13 years that a country is listed in this category.
The PFC identification is reserved by statute for countries with the most egregious IP-related acts, policies and practices with the greatest adverse impact on relevant US products and that are not entering into good faith negotiations or making significant progress in negotiations to provide adequate and effective IP rights protection.
Six countries have been placed on the Priority Watch List, including Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela, adding that the USTR, this year, included the European Union on the IP Watch List.
In the Special 301 Report, Auramon said that the USTR has, however, nodded to the Thai government’s determination to improve IP protection and the suppression of related violations on a continuous basis, especially its pro-active measures and attempts to amend the IP laws.
She also said that the USTR had observed Thailand’s preparations for accession to the WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty, as well as the Hague Agreement Concerning International Registration of Industrial Designs.
The USTR has urged Thailand to step up suppression of online sales of pirated products, especially targeting major traders and producers, she said, adding that the USTR has pointed to a backlog of applications for IP rights protection, especially regarding pharmaceutical products, as well as false claims for IP fees.
Between October last year and March this, Auramon said the IP department had filed 332 lawsuits against online and on-site IP offenders and seized about 1.3 million items of pirated products worth over 2.3 billion baht.
In the meantime, she said the department has launched a pro-active campaign to educate the public about the impacts and risks of buying and using pirated products and the need to develop the IP ecosystem.
