What the US wants from China during the 90-day trade war truce
- Beijing may offer concessions on certain US demands including IP protection and agriculture
- However, other issues are more intractable and are unlikely to be resolved within 90 days
With the US and China facing a 90-day deadline to resolve their differences over trade, we look at some of the areas where Washington will be looking for concessions and its chances of getting what it wants.
Forced technology transfer
China has officially denied that it forces foreign companies to hand over technology as a condition of doing business in the country – a long-standing complaint from the US and other countries.
In October Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said: “I want to emphasise that China’s laws and regulations do not contain any requirement for technology transfer and that companies’ purchases of technologies and patents are pure market behaviour.”
This makes it unlikely that China will openly commit to reforms in this area, which means any movement on this is likely to happen behind the scenes.
IP protection