Washington, D.C., partner Elliot Feldman, leader of Baker Hostetler's international trade practice, was quoted in the December 14, 2009, Wall Street Journal article, "China Firms Defend Tech-Purchase Rules," which appeared in both the English and Chinese editions of the publication.
According to the article, Chinese industry insiders and companies defended Beijing's request that state agencies buy products containing domestic intellectual property—but even these intended beneficiaries expressed confusion about how new government procurement regulations would affect them. China's updated procurement rules, issued on an official Web site in October, establish an accreditation system that gives Chinese intellectual property preferential treatment in sales of tech products to government buyers. More than 30 industry groups, representing most of the world's major tech companies, recently wrote a letter to the Chinese government, calling the system onerous and discriminatory. The Department of Commerce and other U.S. agencies have also raised the issue with China, according to the article.
The Senate Finance Committee is discussing the issue with the office of the Trade Representative. But options may be limited, as government procurement so far isn't included in China's World Trade Organization commitments. "The WTO does forbid discriminating against foreign goods," said Feldman, an author of the firm's China-U.S. Trade Law blog. "Except when the government is the buyer."