China has made progress towards beefing up protections for US technology and copyrights but the country has not gone far enough to resolve a main point of friction with Washington, US trade officials said Thursday.
Beijing's efforts to date "fall short of needed fundamental changes," the US Trade Representative's office said in an annual report to Congress released days before trade talks are set to resume with Beijing.
A USTR official told reporters the Chinese government has made steps to reorganize "ministries and agencies responsible for the protection and enforcement of IP" and continued to reform its judicial system.
However, "it's still too early to tell whether these efforts will lead to substantially improved IP protection and enforcement in China," the official said in a conference call.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly thrashed Beijing for what he said was the rampant theft of US know-how, through forced technology transfer and other means, and made that a central feature of ongoing trade talks.
Trade officials are due to resume talks in Beijing on April 30 and then return to Washington for another round on May 8.
China remains at the top of the USTR "priority watch list" for the worst violators of US trade secrets and an online market run by Alibaba also features on the "notorious markets" list.
Canada was removed from the worst-offenders list after the signing of a new regional free trade agreement, which includes new provisions to protect intellectual property.
The report said "these commitments will substantially improve the IP environment in Canada."
Colombia likewise was removed from the list after signing a free trade deal with Washington, but Saudi Arabia was added "for failing to address longstanding IP concerns and further deteriorating IP protection and enforcement within its borders," especially with regards to medicines, the report said.
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