Trade talks between the US and China are progressing and both sides hope to get closer to a deal this week, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says as negotiators prepared to start a fresh round of talks in Washington.
Talks between the two economic powerhouses made good headway last week in Beijing, Kudlow told reporters on Wednesday at an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
Kudlow said China has acknowledged problems of intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer and hacking for the first time as a result of the trade talks.
He said US charges against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies has generally not come up during trade talks.
Kudlow also said no decisions have been made on auto tariffs.
Meanwhile President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered a crackdown on counterfeit products on third-party online marketplaces, asking for more information on how the United States can better track and curb such sales.
The memo signed by Trump said that the value of global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods may rise to half a trillion dollars a year, with about 20 per cent of this trade infringing upon US intellectual property.
"The president has decided it is time to clean up this Wild West of counterfeiting and trafficking," White House economic adviser Peter Navarro said on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.
Companies like China's Alibaba Group Holding, Amazon.com and eBay have policies that ban counterfeit goods and have pointed to their investments in programs to keep fakes off their platforms.
The memo did not identify specific companies by name.
"Amazon invests heavily in proactive measures to prevent counterfeit goods from ever reaching our stores. In 2018 alone, we spent over $400M fighting counterfeits, fraud, and other forms of abuse," an Amazon spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The order requires the Homeland Security Department, together with the departments of Commerce and Justice, to provide recommendations in 210 days on how to address the problem through better monitoring and enforcement, Navarro said.
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