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The China-U.S. Intellectual Property Rights Dispute: Background and Implications for China-U.S. Economic Relations
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The United States has pressed China over the past several years to improve its protection of U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR) and to afford greater market access to intellectual property-related products, such as computer software, compact disks (CDs), and audio-visual products. U.S. threats of trade sanctions against Chinese products helped produce trade agreements in January 1992 and February 1995 that pledged China to improve its IPR enforcement regime and expand market access for IPR-related products. However, despite these agreements, U.S. and IPR industry officials have charged that IPR piracy in China remains rampant and is costing U.S. firms $2.3 billion in lost trade annually. On May 15, 1996, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) threatened to impose approximately $2 billion in trade sanctions against China for failing to abide by the February 1995 IPR agreement. This report outlines the history of the U.S.-Chinese IPR dispute and examines its ramifications for future U.S.-Chinese economic relations.