| | | China makes unprecedented proposals on tech transfer, trade challenges: US officials
Published Wed, Mar 27 2019 • 11:09 PM EDT
- Progress in all areas under discussion in U.S.-China trade talks has been made, with unprecedented movement on the touchy issue of forced technology transfers, U.S. officials said.
- One officer said said intellectual property and enforcement of an eventual deal continued to be sticking points.
- U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin arrive in Beijing on Thursday for a new round of talks with Chinese officials to work out a deal that would end a months-long trade war.
China has made unprecedented proposals in talks with the United States on a range of issues including forced technology transfer as the two sides work to overcome remaining obstacles to a deal to end their protracted trade war, U.S. officials told Reuters.
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports last year in a move to force China to change the way it does business with the rest of the world and to pry open more of China’s economy to U.S. companies.
Among Trump’s demands are for Beijing to end practices that Washington alleges result in the systematic theft of U.S. intellectual property and the forced transfer of American technology to Chinese companies.
China put proposals on the table in the talks that went further than in the past, including on technology transfer, said one of four senior U.S. administration officials who spoke to Reuters.
Negotiators have made progress on the details of the written agreements that have been hashed out to address U.S. concerns, he said.
“If you looked at the texts a month ago compared to today, we have moved forward in all areas. We aren’t yet where we want to be,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They’re talking about forced technology transfer in a way that they’ve never wanted to talk about before - both in terms of scope and specifics,” he said, referring to Chinese negotiators. He declined to give further detail.
Reuters reported previously that the two sides were working on written agreements in six areas: forced technology transfer and cyber theft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agriculture and non-tariff barriers to trade.
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