companies of all sizes to benefit from foreign technical experts and research and development activities in other countries, the sharing of trade secrets with entities operating in nations with weak rule of law may expose them to intellectual property losses. Any resulting cost advantages will likely be more than offset by losses in proprietary company information," the US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, said.
Hormats said the strategy released adds to America's international engagement on trade secrets in several important ways.
"First of all, we will enhance and track even more effectively our diplomatic engagement by senior administration officials with any country where there are trade secret problems.
"This will allow senior administration officials to deliver a coordinated message to foreign governments on trade secrets and send a clear signal that significantly reducing trade secret theft is a high priority for the United States," he said.
The US, Hormats said, will also work with its foreign counterparts to improve legal frameworks in order to provide strong and efficient remedies for trade secret theft victims.
"We will leverage the full scope of our diplomatic resources, what we call our force in the field, which is the US embassies and consulates. We will strive to improve communication and coordination inside of our diplomatic missions and among our diplomatic missions so that they can learn from one another on best practices as well and set forward concrete steps for our embassies and consulates to engage host governments on trade secret issues," he added.
Demetrios Marantis, the Deputy US Trade Representative, said that nearly 35 per cent of US GDP comes from industries that rely heavily on intellectual property. These industries account for more than half of the goods it exports by value. And they support about 40 million good-paying jobs.
The US, he said, is moving in the context of international negotiations.
"We're working bilaterally on trade secret-related issues with some key trading partners, and we're also trying to incorporate the protection of trade secrets in the work that we do in non-IT areas like investment," he said.
Marantis said that the US is currently negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is an 11-country negotiation that is seeking to achieve the highest standards in a whole variety of areas.
"One very important innovation that we're pursuing this year, or pursuing in the context of TPP, is in the area of trade secrets. For the first time ever, the United States is proposing provisions that offer right holders remedies similar to those provided under US law, including criminal penalties and procedures for trade secret theft," he said.
