Stephen Moore: Trade Deals Must Protect Intellectual Property Rights
CFIF recently highlighted the importance of strengthening intellectual property rights as part of ongoing trade negotiations in a piece entitled “Intellectual Property: NAFTA Renegotiation Priority #1.” Days later, Senator Pat Toomey (R – Pennsylvania) echoed that call in his Wall Street Journal commentary.
This week, celebrated economist Stephen Moore added his voice in a brilliant commentary entitled “Trade Deals Must Protect Intellectual Property Rights”:
American investments, ingenuity and entrepreneurship have made intellectual property one of our nation’s most important assets. IP-intensive industries, including software, biotechnology and entertainment, now support nearly one-third of all U.S. jobs. But too often, our foreign trading partners take unfair advantage of our IP innovations to enrich themselves at our expense.”
Moore proceeds to highlight the pharmaceutical sector as one particularly abused by foreign governments, and notes the enormous cost of IP theft to the U.S. economy by nations like China, then stresses the ominous danger if we fail to act:
Intellectual property is every bit as vital to our economy – if not more so – than steel or aluminum. America leads the world in computer software; drugs; artificial intelligence; patents; trademarks; and music, entertainment and other creative industries. But how long can that last when competitor nations are ripping off our entrepreneurial companies to the tune of half a trillion dollars a year?”
It’s an excellent piece worth the read, and a welcome call from someone to whom the White House listens.
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