(Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. China said it will raise penalties on violations of intellectual property rights in an attempt to address one of the sticking points in trade talks with the U.S.The country will also look into lowering the thresholds for criminal punishments for those who steal IP, according to guidelines issued by the government on Sunday. It didn’t elaborate on what such moves might entail.The U.S. wants
China to commit to cracking down on IP theft and stop forcing U.S. companies to hand over their commercial secrets as a condition of doing business there. China said it’s aiming to reduce frequent IP violations by 2022 and plans to make it easier for victims of transgressions to receive compensation.The two countries are working toward a partial trade deal and leaving the more controversial issues for later discussions. China’s chief trade negotiator spoke last week about its plans for reforming state enterprises, opening up the financial sector and enforcing intellectual property rights -- issues at the core of U.S. demands for change in China’s economic system.How and Why the U.S. Says China Steals Technology: QuickTake“Strengthening IPR protection is the most important content of improving the IPR protection system and also the biggest incentive to boost China’s economic competitiveness,” according to the guidelines. Local governments will be required to implement the strengthening of IP rights, it said.In May, the U.S. added Huawei Technologies Co. to what’s known as the entity list in an effort to block U.S. companies from selling components to China’s largest technology company. Huawei is accused of being a threat to America’s national security, and has denied those claims.Trump, Xi Talk Past Each Other on Need for Win-Win Trade DealTo contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Li Liu in
Beijing at lliu255@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Matthew G. MillerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.