Significant barriers to U.S. trade and investment faced in the last year as well as the actions being taken by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).


CHINA

Industrial Policies:  China’s industrial policies limit market access by non-Chinese origin goods by protecting favored sectors and industries, using tools like standards, local content rules, and government procurement regulations.  One example involves China’s so-called “indigenous innovation” policies, which, among other things, provide preferences to products containing Chinese-developed IP for government procurement purposes.

Inadequate IPR Enforcement: In China, sales of infringing goods displace legitimate goods, and reduce U.S. access to China’s market and other markets affected by China’s infringing exports.  Inadequate IPR enforcement affects a wide range of products, including films, music, publishing, software, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information technology, consumer goods, industrial goods, food products, medical devices, electrical equipment, automotive parts, clothing and footwear.

Services Restrictions:  China maintains prohibitions on foreign participation, restrictive licensing systems, foreign equity limitations, restrictions on scope of business and other measures that limit or block market access in a variety of services sectors.  One example involves the telecommunications sector, where China has not approved any new suppliers of basic telecom services since joining the WTO in 2001 and maintains a web of restrictive policies that severely limits access to its value-added sector.

http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/2010/march/-2010-national-trade-estimate-report-key-elements