Are the U.S. and China on the road to a trade agreement?
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Fox Business Network that Washington and Beijing have reached a “conceptual agreement” on one sticking point: intellectual property (IP) theft.
According to Mnuchin, both sides have agreed on enforcing mechanisms to prevent IP theft.
Mnuchin said that the Chinese are giving the White House “a sign of good faith” by coming to Washington to talk. Though he noted that President Donald Trump has no qualms about maintaining hefty tariffs on China in the event of no deal.
He was also bullish on the economy, stating that the trade war has not impacted the U.S. economy (HA!) and that the U.S. will finish the year “very robust” without a recession on the horizon.
What seems more likely is that Trump will reach an 11th-hour agreement before the election and proclaim victory.
That is 4D chess underwater, blindfolded, and without an oxygen mask!
… There are two categories of intellectual property that have been stolen by the Chinese. Some have asserted that Chinese culture has historically been antagonistic to the concept of copyrighting art or films. Certainly, Hollywood has lost billions of dollars to bootlegged and pirated Chinese copies of American movies. The Chinese government discriminates against films not produced in China. However, a glance at Table 2 below, which shows worldwide total box office gross receipts in 2018, tells that the Chinese may now be eager to cooperate in efforts to crackdown on bootlegged and pirated copies of movies and eliminate discrimination by countries against films not produced locally. Of the 15 top-grossing films so far in 2018, 6 were Chinese…
..The other category of intellectual property involves technology. Many companies around the world use reverse-engineering and other methods to expropriate technology developed by others. These issues are usually litigated in patent courts. China has required foreign firms to enter joint ventures with Chinese firms as a condition of entering the market. Again, as the Chinese develop more of their own proprietary technology, they will be more interested in preventing theft of intellectual property through stronger patent, trademark and copyright enforcement…”
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4290032