The Trump administration on Friday labeled 36 countries as inadequately protecting US intellectual property rights, keeping China on a priority watch list and adding Canada over concerns about its border controls and pharmaceutical practices.<\/p>\n
The US Trade Representative\u2019s annual report on global IP concerns is separate from the \u201cSection 301\u201d report on Chinese technology transfer practices that has led the world\u2019s two largest economies to threaten each other with tariffs.<\/p>\n
The so-called \u201cSpecial 301 Report on Intellectual Property Rights\u201d calls out China for its \u201ccoercive technology transfer practices\u201d and \u201ctrade secret theft, rampant online piracy, and counterfeit manufacturing\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was the 14th straight year that China was placed on the \u201cPriority Watch List\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report was met with objections from the Chinese commerce ministry, which said the United States lacks objective standards and fairness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chinese side opposes this, and urges the US to earnestly fulfill its bilateral commitments, respect the facts, and objectively, impartially, evaluate with positive intentions the efforts made by foreign governments including China in the area of intellectual property rights and the results achieved,\u201d the ministry said in a statement on its website on Saturday.<\/p>\n
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is due to travel to China next week along with other senior Trump administration officials for talks on US demands for changes in Beijing\u2019s trade and intellectual property policies.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has threatened up to $150 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, and China\u2019s Ministry of Commerce has threatened to retaliate in equal measure.<\/p>\n
A USTR official declined to comment on Lighthizer\u2019s specific message to his Chinese counterparts next week, but said US officials \u201canticipate engaging with them meaningfully on all these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest surprise in Friday\u2019s report was the decision to move Canada from the lower-level \u201cWatch List\u201d to the same priority list as China. USTR cited Canada\u2019s \u201cpoor border enforcement,\u201d especially for counterfeit goods shipped through America\u2019s northern neighbor, and concerns about intellectual property protections for pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n
U.S. pharmaceutical companies have long complained that generic versions of drugs still under U.S. patent protection flood in from Canada at much cheaper prices.<\/p>\n
The increased criticism of Canada was revealed as Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was locked in intense negotiations with Lighthizer over updating the North American Free Trade Agreement.<\/p>\n
Washington has demanded that a modernization of the 1994 pact include stronger IP protections.<\/p>\n
Lighthizer, Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo are trying to work out a number of stumbling blocks in the NAFTA talks, including auto content rules.<\/p>\n
The office of Canadian Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, who launched an intellectual property strategy on Thursday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Ottawa is pledging to create an independent body to oversee patent and trademark issues, \u201cwhich will ensure that professional and ethical standards are maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colombia also was added to the Priority Watch List for failing to revise its copyright laws as required under a free trade agreement with the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Trump administration on Friday labeled 36 countries as inadequately protecting US intellectual property rights, keeping China on a priority watch list and adding Canada over concerns about its border controls and pharmaceutical practices. The US Trade Representative\u2019s annual report on global IP concerns is separate from the \u201cSection 301\u201d report on Chinese technology transfer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29493,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29491\/revisions\/29493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}