ABSTRACT
Congress drafted Super 301 to force the executive branch to initiate Section 301 cases. Congress believed that the executive branch was unwilling to initiate cases against major trading partners for fear of ruffling diplomatic feathers. Petition initiating is an important feature of Section 301, but the authors of the statute realized early that the threat of retaliation by foreign governments often keeps private companies from initiating action. Super 301 performs the essential function of requiring an annual listing of priorities and initiation of Section 301 cases. If Super 301 and Special 301 were not in the law, the self-initiation of cases would become the rarely used alternative it was before the mid-1980s. Since Special 301 is a permanent feature of US trade law, trading partners are on constant notice that a reversion to piracy of US intellectual property will bring future trade action.
