China remains on the priority watch list of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the agency announced on April 29, saying that the country’s pace of addressing IP protection and enforcement “remained slow” in 2024.
“Our trading partners must address the concerns identified in the Special 301 Report and stop those stealing the intellectual property of hard-working businesses and individuals.
“President [Donald] Trump has a track record of empowering our innovators and workers, and this comprehensive report is a basis for the United States to take trade enforcement action against those not playing fairly.”
Communist China has been on the priority watch list for most years since the Special 301 Report was first issued in 1989. This year, the USTR said there are “serious concerns” about several longstanding issues, including technology transfer, trade secrets, counterfeiting, online piracy, copyright law, patent and related policies, bad-faith trademarks, and geographical indications.
“China should provide a level playing field for IP protection and enforcement, refrain from requiring or pressuring technology transfer to Chinese companies at all levels of government, open China’s market to foreign investment, and embrace open, market-oriented policies,” the report reads.
USTR said the phase-one trade agreement, signed in January 2020 during the previous Trump administration, included several Chinese commitments relating to such issues as trademarks, copyrights, and pharmaceutical-related IP.
“China has failed to implement or only partially implemented a number of these commitments,” the report reads. “The United States continues to closely monitor China’s progress in implementing its commitments under the Phase One Agreement.”
In the report, USTR noted that China continues to be the “world’s leading source of counterfeit and pirated goods,” citing data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
USTR said that counterfeiting activities in China have increased as the country’s economy has declined.
“The production, distribution, and sale of counterfeit medicines, fertilizers, and pesticides, as well as under-regulated pharmaceutical ingredients, remain widespread in China,” the report reads.
The report highlights a new development in March, when China’s State Council issued the “Provisions on the Handling of Foreign-Related Intellectual Property Disputes.” USTR called the latest Chinese measure “troubling” because it “seemingly legitimizes political intervention in IP disputes.”
“This new measure authorizes Chinese government agencies to take countermeasures against and impose restrictions on foreign entities that ‘use intellectual property disputes as an excuse to contain and suppress China’ and also to ‘take discriminatory restrictive measures against Chinese citizens or organizations,’” the report reads.
Aside from China and Mexico, the USTR’s priority watch list also includes Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Venezuela.
The watch list includes Algeria, Barbados, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, and Vietnam.
