EU, Japan Support US in China Dispute at WTO

The European Union and Japan would like to join the negotiations with the U.S., as the World Trade Organization attempts to tackle the problem of forced joint ventures, tech transfer and other violations of intellectual property rights in China. The EU wrote that its members export 680 billion euros' worth of high tech products and services, and that protecting intellectual property rights is fundamentally important for that business. It also noted that it has 180 billion euros in investment in China. "Much of the investments are concluded under joint-venture requirements," according to the document, submitted April 5.

Japan, which also asked to join consultations in the China-U.S. dispute on April 5, wrote that it has expressed concerns for many years on Chinese policies on technology transfers. "Japan has continuous concern about the legal instruments identified in the request for consultations by the United States, which have a commercial impact on Japanese companies that transfer technologies to Chinese partners," the document said. Japan also said that Japanese companies account for about 20 percent of technology imported into China, so it's one of the largest stakeholders in technology transfer. Japan said it believes that Chinese laws on joint ventures disadvantage foreign companies, including Japanese companies, in part because the law "denies foreign patent holders the ability to enforce their intellectual property rights against Chinese joint-venture parties after a technology transfer contract is expired." Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Taiwan also asked on April 6 to join the consultations, but did not clearly signal which country they would side with.