BANGKOK: -- The United States has demanded that the Thai government quickly solve what it described as persistent violations of intellectual property agreements before deciding on the trade status of the Kingdom due to be announced on April 30, a senior Thai official said Monday.

Puangrat Assawapisit, director-general of Thailand's Intellectual Property Department, said the United States Trade Representative (USTR) had on March 28 submitted this year's annual report to the Congress which also contained a report on alleged past violations of intellectual property rights of the US by Thailand.

Reiterating that the Thai government had strictly protected US intellectual property rights, Mrs. Puangrat said her department had also dispatched details of its suppression activities to the US authorities for consideration.

Washington, she said, wanted the Thai government to focus on six issues if the kingdom desired an improved ranking.

The six demands include intellectual property protection for new drugs, she indicated, saying that the US considered that the compulsory licensing (CL) measures activated by Thailand regarding certain drugs still lacked transparency.

The Americans said that the Thai law punishing producers of contraband CDs is still too lenient and that the Thai government should impose penalties against shopping mall owners where counterfeit products are displayed.

Mrs. Puangrat had earlier expressed worries that Washington might place Thailand on its "priority foreign country" PFC list for intellectual property infringements and subject the Kingdom to certain trade sanctions.

She had also earlier said that it was possible that the US might remove Thailand from its the current position on the priority watch list (PWL) to the less favourable PFC because the US felt that Thailand had failed to reduce the piracy problem, and that Washington might impose certain trade sanctions against this country.

--TNA 2008-04-07