US presses China over IP concerns amid tariff dispute

Bloomberg

The US issued a new warning to China on its handling of intellectual property as President Donald Trump prepares to dispatch senior advisers to the Asian nation to head off a trade dispute.
The US Trade Representative’s office kept China on its “priority watch list” of countries whose IP practices require monitoring. China has an “urgent need” to fix a range of IP-related concerns, including trade-secret theft, online piracy, and forced technology transfer, USTR said in its annual report on IP protection and enforcement.
Escalating trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have rattled markets and sparked fears of a trade war. Trump has proposed tariffs on as much as $150 billion of Chinese imports on the grounds of alleged IP theft, while Beijing has vowed to retaliate on everything from American soybeans to airplanes.
The annual list, which carries no immediate penalties, is supposed draw attention to the need for nations to address everything from copyright infringement to online piracy.
China opposed the US decision to keep its name on the list, the Asian nation’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement. The US assessment of other countries’ intellectual property practices lacks objectivity, fairness, and has been widely criticised, the ministry said.

China Visit
Trump said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other senior officials will visit China within days, adding that there’s a “very good chance” the two countries can reach a deal. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow will also be part of the delegation.
Kudlow said he expects serious negotiations on a range of trade irritants, including technology-related issues, and the US will be looking for specific actions from China.
Officials in Beijing in recent weeks have been announcing steps to further open up the economy, such as gradually scrapping foreign ownership caps on local vehicle companies.
The administration added Canada and Colombia to the highest priority watch list for IP challenges, and it dropped Thailand from the regular watch list.

Canada Watch
Canada is the only Group of Seven country on the monitoring list. The USTR said the country has failed to resolve “key longstanding deficiencies,” including poor border and law enforcement with respect to counterfeit and pirated goods, weak patent protection and pricing for pharmaceuticals, and inadequate copyright protection.
The move comes as the US, Canada and Mexico aim for a tentative deal on a revised North American Free Trade Agreement in the coming days.
The new deal will likely include a separate chapter on intellectual property practices.
USTR is required by law to identify countries that don’t adequately protect IP or deny market access to US companies that rely on IP protection. USTR can launch investigations against countries on the priority watch list under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The Trump administration used that section to investigate China.
Trump proposed the tariffs against Chinese products after USTR concluded earlier this year that China engages in widespread violation of US IP rights.

Southeast Asian leaders agree
to fast track regional trade pact
Bloomberg

Southeast Asian leaders agreed to work intensively towards an agreement by the end of this year on plans to create what could potentially be the world’s biggest trading bloc.
Attempts to advance the so-called Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership were a key talking point at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that concluded in Singapore.
“We very much hope that we will be able to do it this year because otherwise events will supervene and there will be elections and the matter will fizzle out,” Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong said.
If ever fully achieved, the partnership would include the 10 Asean nations as well as China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and cover one third of world’s economy and almost half its population.
While the pact doesn’t seek to impose higher standards in areas such as labor and environmental protection, like the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership signed earlier this year, consensus is proving elusive. A major obstacle is India’s requirement that any agreement to reduce tariffs on goods and services should allow for free movement of people, something India wants for its skilled IT sector.