China remains on US IP watchlist as trade representative blasts Beijing for ‘unfair’ and ‘backward’ laws during trade war tensions
US pressure increases as US officials prepare to travel to Beijing and meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in hopes to avert an all-out trade war
The USTR is keeping China on a “priority watch list” of 12 countries with problematic or deteriorating environments for IP in its annual global violations report. Other countries include Canada, which was given the designation for the first time, as well as India, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela.
China continues to take steps backward ... [and it is placing] a great strain on our trade relationship
“China continues to take steps backward as it requires US and other foreign firms wishing to do business in China to transfer IT to domestic firms as a precondition,” said a USTR official briefing journalists about the report.
“These unfair requirements in pursuit of China’s industrial policy goals place a great strain on our trade relationship.”
The Special 301 Report, which has been published for three decades, is separate from a Section 301 investigation the trade representative’s office initiated on China’s IP regulations last year.
That inquiry prompted US President Donald Trump to announce punitive tariffs earlier this month on US$50 billion worth of annual imports from China and to threaten to target a further US$100 billion worth of trade.