Hickerson Comments on U.S. Trade Relations with China

Partner David Hickerson was quoted in a World Intellectual Property Review article, “Trade relations: Sending in the big guns,” about whether the Trump administration is overreaching the scope of its trade tools in its fight against Chinese bad actors.

Hickerson said he believes the administration is using the March 2018 U.S. Trade Representative’s section 301 report into “China’s Acts and Policies on IP, Technology Transfer and Innovation,” to exert influence in trade negotiations. “If Trump imposes tariffs on all Chinese imports, as has been threatened, this will be an overreach of section 301,” he said.

Hickerson also said the International Trade Commission has used section 337 cases over the past two decades to target Chinese companies. “The number of cases filed against Chinese respondents exceeds the number of ITC filings against respondents from all other countries (excluding the U.S.) combined,” he added.