Forced 'Technology Transfer' Acts ‘Undermine’ Proper Trade, Officials of US, EU, Japan Agree
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer met with the trade ministers of Japan and the EU in Paris May 31 and “confirmed their shared view that no country should require or pressure technology transfer from foreign companies to domestic companies” through the use of joint-venture requirements, licensing processes or “other means,” they said. The ministers discussed “the harmful effects of regulatory measures that force foreign companies seeking to license technologies to domestic entities to do so on non-market-based terms that favor domestic entities,” the officials said. They explored the need “to establish and share best practices” to thwart government practices that “unfairly facilitate the systematic investment in, and acquisition of, foreign companies and assets to obtain technologies and intellectual property and generate the transfer of technology to domestic companies,” they said.
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The ministers also “condemned government actions that support the unauthorized intrusion into, and theft from, the computer networks of foreign companies to access their sensitive commercial information and trade secrets and use that information for commercial gain,” they said. Such policies and practices “create unfair competitive conditions for our workers and businesses, hinder the development and use of innovative technologies, and undermine the proper functioning of international trade” and should be stopped through “effective means,” including dispute settlement proceedings at the World Trade Organization, they said. A Section 301 investigation found systemic IP rights issues in China, leading to the planned imposition of 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports.
In an earlier statement, The EU said “unilateral actions” shouldn’t be taken to address the technology transfer problem, in an apparent criticism of U.S. Section 301 tariffs made at the World Trade Organization on May 28. “The EU believes that there are ways to find solutions to these issues other than resorting to unilateral actions that risk undermining the multilateral trading system and triggering unnecessary trade wars,” it said. “Therefore the EU will not support any measure which would be contrary to the WTO system and calls on the relevant Members to ensure WTO compliance of their trade actions.”