MOFCOM Spokesperson Condemns U.S. “Wrongdoing” Over Notorious Market Report

On February 15, 2014, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) Danyang Shen, in a recent MOFCOM press conference, said the U.S. government is “irresponsible” to list China and Chinese companies on the “Notorious Market” list issued unilaterally by the United States Trade Representative (USTR). According to Mr. Shen, the inclusions is especially unfair given the recent progress that Chinese company made on intellectual property protection, and the lack of concrete evidence that went into the “Notorious Market” report. The use of anecdotal terms such as “reportedly” and “right users indicate” in the report to describe Chinese companies suggest a lack of research into the actual state of IP compliance among these countries.

In the 24^th session of China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade in December of last year, China had expressed its concerns over notorious market reports. The U.S. government committed to making several improvements to communications with the Chinese government and enterprises regarding increased transparency for the notorious market report.