Statement On USTR’s Review Of South Africa’s GSP Status

Washington, DC – IA Director, Trade Policy Jordan Haas released the following statement on USTR’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) country practice review of South Africa, and specifically the question of whether South Africa is meeting the GSP eligibility criterion requiring adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights:

“Fair use protections are a time-tested part of American intellectual property law that underpin free expression, the arts, research and industries that support one in eight U.S. jobs. USTR should support South Africa’s new copyright law because it includes fair use protections modeled on America’s intellectual property system and the United States government should support other countries adopting systems similar to our framework. Opposing South Africa’s proposed law could send the signal that the adoption of U.S.-style copyright measures should result in loss of GSP status.”

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