Washington, D.C., partner Elliot Feldman, leader of Baker Hostetler's international trade practice and regular contributor to the practice's China-U.S. Trade Law blog, was quoted in the May 24, 2010, Law360 article, "Trade Issues On The Table In US-China Dialogue."
The focus of the article is the second annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue between the United States and China, which recently commenced in Beijing. According to the article, trade issues—from China's indigenous innovation rules and exchange rate policy, to U.S. export control regulations—would be front and center.
The "indigenous innovation" program is a set of government procurement rules that would give preferential treatment to companies that develop their intellectual property in China. Feldman said that China was not a party to the World Trade Organization's government procurement agreement and therefore not bound by its rules. "The Chinese should be wary of enlisting unless serious concessions are made by the U.S.," he said, adding that the United States has pages of exceptions in its own accession. Feldman said that regardless of China's WTO obligations, the indigenous innovation program was highly protectionist, and not publicly presented as the Chinese had intended.