Congressional Economic Leaders Call on US To Address Overcapacity, IPR at Strategic Dialogue in Beijing
Leaders of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees urged the high-level U.S. delegation to the Strategic & Economic Dialogue in Beijing this week to directly engage Chinese officials on their country’s contributions to global overcapacities of steel, aluminum, solar and other goods. Chinese subsidies and “other market-distorting measures” largely influence these overcapacities, and the top Obama administration officials should push China’s “meaningful engagement” on compliance with the World Trade Organization Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the lawmakers said in a letter (here) to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Secretary of State John Kerry, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
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The lawmakers also called on the U.S. officials to address Chinese government overstepping into currency and exchange rate matters, and cited what they expressed as Chinese non-market economic practices, including setting localization requirements on information and communications technology, non-scientific barriers to agricultural imports from the U.S., and a “deficient” national intellectual property environment. The congressional leaders also said the Cabinet secretaries should emphasize the importance of recent reforms to trade secrets laws. “China remains the greatest infringer of intellectual property rights (IPR) of U.S. producers of audiovisual content,” the letter said. “China’s enforcement against counterfeit goods and online infringement of [intellectual property rights] remains grossly inadequate. Additionally, China’s trademark registration system continues to be deliberately difficult for legitimate rights holders to navigate.”