Hill Slams China IP Enforcement, Says TPP Must Include Enforcement
House lawmakers slammed the Chinese government for facilitating infringement and theft of U.S. intellectual property online, during a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing July 19. The Chinese government has "approved and coordinated" theft of U.S. IP and the American government has…
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been "cowardly" in confronting the threat, said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. "We've been played for suckers over the years, we've been played as fools" as the Chinese government has only become more "brazen in their theft of wealth that should be going to our people." Committee Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., urged the executive branch to negotiate enforceable agreements with foreign governments that will curb IP theft such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The trade agreement would require parties --- which include the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Peru, Malaysia and Vietnam --- to ensure they have effective enforcement procedures against online trademark, copyright and other rights infringements. Ranking Member Howard Berman, D-Calif., said the U.S. has an opportunity to successfully negotiate the TPP, which he called an "ambitious agreement" with Asian countries to protect U.S. IP. "It is critical that this agreement reflect and prioritize the contribution of the U.S. IP industries to the U.S. economy by including strong protections for IP and robust enforcement provisions," he said. Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow Derek Scissors agreed that the TPP offers a "great possibility" for curbing Chinese IP theft and urged lawmakers to pursue other lines of attack as well. "There are ways for the U.S. to change its laws to make it more difficult and uncomfortable" for Chinese infringers, he said. David Hirschmann, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center, said it's crucial to focus on the Web where stolen U.S. IP is primarily being distributed. "One thing we can do is to begin to work with the world to find pro-Internet freedom rule of law approaches to address distribution on the Internet," he said. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have previously denounced the TPP as a threat to Internet freedom, and Wyden introduced a bill in May to clarify the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's duty to share trade agreement information with all members of Congress.