September 16th US Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and US Trade Representative Susan c. Schwab, together with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan convened the 19th US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). Read the press release of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) here. What are the outcomes of this meeting?
The countries will hold regular meetings of the IPR Working Group; The IPR Working Group will continue to pursue cooperation activities;
More meetings between responsible officials regarding, China's patent law amendments, pharmaceutical data protection and the Memorandum of Cooperation on Strengthened Cooperation in Border Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, read more here.
The countries agreed to sign two IPR memoranda of understanding (MOUs), between the USPTO, US Copyright Office and China's National Copyrigth Administation and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, on strategic cooperation to improve the administration and effectiveness of copyright and trademark protection and enforcement, ASAP, but no later than the end of 2008.
Countries agreed to continue cooperation on healthcare.
With respect to China's accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), China submitted to the WTO its responses to the Checklist of Issues on September 15, 2008, read more here. China's accession to the GPA would provide international companies access tot a 35 billion dollar per year governement procurement market in China.
Head tip to Ms Eileen McDermott who wrote 'US and China cooperate on IP issues' for Managing Intellectual Property, read more here.
Right, but what are the concrete measures?
There is nothing wrong with the US-China JCCT. But every year they triomphantly tell the media that they have agreed to hold new meetings and continue the cooperation. A memorandum of cooperation to strengthen cooperation on Border Enforcement of IPRs, is difficult to measure. Memoranda of understanding, which are only announced not even signed yet, are not really binding. This leaves the press release with one interesting item: that China committed to the WTO its responses to the Checklist of Issues, regarding the WTO Governement Procurement Agreement. The question is what was China's response.
1 comment:
As someone in the medical device industry, I can say that the item on joint ACSIQ/SFDA testing and inspection is something real, not just meetings. On the other hand, who knows whether the JCCT was the real impetus.
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