This morning, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission presented its annual report to Congress, which examines "how China approaches its responsibilities as a growning economic and military power." Their conclusion: not so well.

Alas, this year's report is not yet online but the Chair and Vice Chair statements can be found here and here.

Chairman Larry Wortzel mentions IP very early on in his statement. Out of ten of the fourty-four recommedations Wortzel chose to hightlight in his statement, this was first:

The Commission recommends that Congress urge the U.S. Trade Representative to press ahead agressively with a WTO case against China for its manifest failures to enforce intellectual property rights.

Also, some stern langauge from Vice-Chair Carolyn Bartholomew:

On the trade front, China has failed to fulfill many of the obligations on internal market-oriented reforms it made when it joined the WTO. Rampant piracy of intellectual property, for example, continues across the country. Entire towns can depend on the revenue generated by counterfeiting. The Chinese government has failed to control such violations and typically prefers administrative fines rather than the more effective avenue of criminal prosecutions. Yet, during the Commission's trip to China last June, amid the excuses from Chinese authorities about their inability to control counterfeiting, a stark contradiction presented itself: Chinese authorities had somehow managed to prevent any counterfeiting of the 2008 Beijing Olympics logos.

I'll share more interesting tidbits once the full report is posted online.

posted by Amy Smorodin @ 2:10 PM | International

Link to this Entry | Printer-Friendly | Email a Comment | Post a Comment(0)