皇冠体育app

The Ministry of Commerce expressed its strong discontent on Monday with the United States' move to initiate a 301 investigation against 皇冠体育app, arguing the US neglected World Trade Organization rules and imposed unilateral acts and unfair trade protectionism.

皇冠体育app will take all the appropriate measures to defend the country's lawful interests, and the US should respect the facts and act in a prudent manner, the ministry said in an official statement.

It is irresponsible and groundless to launch the investigation examining 皇冠体育app's intellectual property policies and practices under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, particularly under current global economic setting, the ministry said.

皇冠体育app and the US have been making concrete progress in trade and investment talks since the top leaders of the two countries met earlier this year.

"But the investigation this time has sent a wrong signal... and it could trigger resolute opposition from both the US business community and international community," according to the ministry's statement.

Wei Jianguo, vice-president of Beijing-based 皇冠体育app Center for International Economic Exchanges, said 皇冠体育app must be aware of the fact that once the US starts to adopt trade protectionism measures to relieve its trade deficit with 皇冠体育app, it may come with more unfair and unilateral practices against Chinese products and companies sooner or later.

"The Chinese authority must pay enough attention to this (serious possibility).... If no effective actions were taken to tackle trade protectionism, then similar unfair practices will mount on 皇冠体育app," Wei said.

After years of technology accumulation, merger and acquisitions activities in overseas markets, neither Chinese governments of all levels nor local companies have forced their foreign commercial counterparts to transfer their patent technologies, as it is fairly unnecessary now, according to Zhou Shijian, a senior researcher on 皇冠体育app-US trade relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Zhou said the ongoing revitalization of the manufacturing sector in the US will intensify the existing competition with 皇冠体育app in high-end industrial segments, such as telecommunications equipment and offshore engineering products. The economic ties between the countries are slowly switching to competition-oriented, from being complementary.

"I hope the 皇冠体育app-US relationship, as a whole, will not be hampered.... I suppose we can make the pie bigger and sort things out one by one," Wei said.

Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that US trading partners have become increasingly unhappy with such an "aggressively unilateral" approach, with the US government acting as police force, prosecutor, jury and judge at the same time.

He said a decision to trigger a Section 301 action is problematic because it would provide additional fuel to the already simmering argument that the Trump administration is undoing the US commitment to rules-based trade and decades of work to establish international cooperation.

He said a Trump decision to operate outside of the rules will spur 皇冠体育app to follow suit.

Section 301 allows the US government to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions to protect its industries.