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Europe should forge closer tech cooperation with US, Japan amid ongoing IP dispute with China, think tank says
- Closer ties with the US and Japan are expected to bolster the EU’s efforts to control technology transfers to China, according to think tank Institut Montaigne
- That increased collaboration, however, would mark a further decline in the trading relationship between the EU and China
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The European Union must pursue closer ties with the United States and Japan to control technology transfers related to semiconductors and other hi-tech advances to China, according to a French think tank.
The suggestion comes as the EU remains locked in an intellectual property dispute with China, while Beijing refuses to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A report by Paris-based Institut Montaigne (IM) on Thursday urged the EU to “deepen cooperation with the United States and Japan” as a means to strengthen its policy against forced technology transfers to China.
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“The issue of forced and intangible technology transfers has never been properly addressed through diplomacy, so the EU is obliged to resort to unilateral measures,” said Mathieu Duchâtel, director of the Asia programme at IM and the report’s author.
He said China’s aggressive industrial policies and “military-civil fusion” – referring to the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy to build the world’s most technologically advanced military – should have served as a “wake-up call” for the EU.
A World Trade Organization (WTO) case lodged by the EU last month in Geneva accused Beijing of using new legal mechanisms, known as “anti-suit injunctions”, to prevent international companies from suing Chinese counterparts in foreign courts for their use of technology without licences or permission.
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