WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Manufacturers praised this week's announcement by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative of a formal request to China for more data on IP enforcement by the Chinese government.


“More and better data will support efforts to combat the rampant counterfeiting of U.S. and other country products by Chinese companies,” said NAM president John Engler. “Current enforcement numbers from the Chinese government lack clarity.

“IP violations should be reported by industry sector, geographic region, exact type of legal charge being brought, and the nationality of the defendant.”

Japan and Switzerland joined the U.S. in seeking the data under Article 63 of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement in Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights.

“Counterfeiting is a problem for Asian and European countries as well as the United States,” Engler said.

U.S. companies lose an estimated $250 billion per year due to counterfeiting and trade in illegitimate products, costing 750,000 American jobs annually, NAM said in a statement.

China has promised more criminal enforcement generally in the last two years at the Cabinet-level U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. “China must institute meaningful prevention of exports of fake goods, with criminal enforcement against the guilty parties, as it has promised,” Engler said. “Chinese ports now under governmental control are, we believe, the best enforcement opportunity both to apprehend criminals to work cooperatively with U.S. customs officials. But we have yet to see progress in that area,” he said.

Engler, a former governor of Michigan, pledged NAM’s support of the USTR and the Commerce Department as they intensify efforts to gain adequate protection of U.S. IP rights in China.