infoJustice

President Obama gave a talk on the stat of the economy last week at the Business Roundtable,  group of American CEOs that promotes pro-business public policies.  The full transcript of his talk, including questions and answers is here.

As part of a longer answer to a general question on the global economy, Obama mentioned bilateral talks with China.  He said that his administration is “pushing hard” on China to strengthen intellectual property, and asked the member companies of the Business Roundtable to “help us by speaking out when you’re getting strong-armed.”

Obama further said that the Trans Pacific Partnership will help the U.S. set strong standards for regional intellectual property rules, as opposed to letting China set weak standards:  “One of the ancillary benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is to create high standards in the region that then China has to adapt to, as opposed to a race to the bottom where there’s no IP protection, for example, and China is really setting the terms for how trade and investment should operate.”

(TPP nations are holding a week of informal negotiations in Washington, DC.  Inside U.S. Trade reports low expectations that progress will be made, because the talks occur just before elections in Japan.)