Why Trump tariffs on China not stopping theft of trade secrets; USA TODAY, November 28, 2018

Michael Collins, USA TODAY; Why Trump tariffs on China not stopping theft of trade secrets

[Kip Currier: Interesting to see a flurry of articles in wide-ranging media about IP--particularly IP theft--placed front and center by the U.S. at the G20 Summit in Argentina (see here and here).

Yesterday I listened to a free webinar, "Modernizing NAFTA into a 21st Century Trade Agreement: The New USMCA & IP", from the ABA IP Law Section on IP-related aspects of the U.S., Mexico, Canada Agreement (USCMA); what was previously informally referred to as NAFTA 2.0.

Ms. Kira Alvarez, Esq., provided an excellent overview of trade agreements like NAFTA and insightful comparative analysis of key IP-focused sections of the TRIPS agreement, Trans-Pacific Partnership (which Donald Trump, fulfilling his campaign promise, opted the U.S. out of as one of the first acts of his presidency in January 2017), and the USCMA. Time will tell if the beefed-up protections for Trade Secrets in the USMCA are successful in curbing IP theft.]

"The theft of U.S. intellectual property, mostly by the Chinese, costs the U.S. an estimated $225 billion to $600 billion a year and represents “an assault the likes of which the world has never seen,” analyst Richard Ellings said.

“You can’t find a company that hasn’t been assaulted, and half of them don’t even know it,” said Ellings, executive director of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property.

President Donald Trump cited China’s theft of intellectual property as one of his reasons for slapping $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports earlier this year. Tariffs, intellectual property theft and the forced transfer of intellectual property will be among the topics of discussion when Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet over dinner Saturday during the G-20 summit in Argentina, White House officials said. 

"The rest of the world knows full well about the issues of IP theft and forced transfers of technology," Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said. "This idea that other countries are not with us is just not true. It's time for a change in their behavior.""