Joint Declaration on Coercion, Non-Market Practices Issued
Countries in the Five Eyes Alliance, plus Japan, have issued a joint declaration on non-market practices and trade related economic coercion that they say "undermine the functioning of and confidence in the rules-based multilateral trading system by distorting trade, investment, and competition and harming relations between countries."
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The U.S., the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Japan issued the statement June 9, which said, in part: "We are particularly concerned with, and oppose, trade-related economic coercion that uses, or uses the threat of, measures affecting trade and investment in an abusive, arbitrary, or pretextual manner to pressure, induce or influence a foreign government into taking, or not taking, a decision or action in order to achieve a strategic political or policy objective, or prevent or interfere with the foreign government’s exercise of its legitimate sovereign rights or choices." They said the coercion is frequently disguised as a regulatory measure unrelated to the issue the coercing government is angry about.
The countries called out these non-market practices: "industrial policies and practices that promote excess capacity; pervasive subsidization; discriminatory and anti-competitive activities of state owned or controlled enterprises; the arbitrary or unjustifiable application of regulations; forced technology transfer; state-sponsored theft of trade secrets; government interference with or direction of commercial decision-making; and insufficient regulatory and market transparency."
They also said that forced labor must end, adding: "We are aware of countries using these practices to confer an unfair competitive advantage."
The declaration defended sanctions, export controls, trade remedies and health and safety and environmental regulations "that are adopted and maintained in a transparent manner, in good faith, and for the purpose of a legitimate public policy objective." China, the unnamed target of the declaration, has complained that the U.S. is the coercive government when it uses sanctions and export controls.
The countries say they will work together, with any other interested countries, to deter and address economic coercion and non-market practices, "including through multilateral institutions, such as the WTO." They said they will explore new economic tools that can respond to these challenges.