The US Trade Representative released an update on Section 301 IP investigation on China yesterday. Less than two weeks ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting as sideline of G20 summit in Argentina, USTR is piling more pressure on China for reforms. In short, the report complained that “China has not fundamentally altered its unfair, unreasonable, and market-distorting practices that were the subject of the March 2018 report on our Section 301 investigation.”
The report also noted that “despite repeated U.S. engagement efforts and international admonishments of its trade technology transfer policies, China did not respond constructively and failed to take any substantive actions to address U.S. concerns.” And, China, “made clear – both in public statements and in government-to-government communications – that it would not change its policies in response to the initial Section 301 action.” The report also said “China largely denied there were problems with respect to its policies involving technology transfer and intellectual property”.
