US accuses China of not having ‘altered unfair’ trade practices

Claims come as markets grow pessimistic that world’s top economies will end trade war soon

Washington said yesterday that Beijing continued to foster the theft of American technological know-how, with officials there exacerbating matters in recent months.

The renewed accusations from President Donald Trump’s administration come as markets grow pessimistic that the world’s two largest economies can resolve their burgeoning trade war anytime soon.

In an update to a report issued in March, the Office of US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Tuesday that China had not remedied practices long criticised by the US and other major economies.

“This update shows that China has not fundamentally altered its unfair, unreasonable, and market-distorting practices that were the subject of the March 2018 report on our Section 301 investigation,” Lighthizer said.

American authorities accuse China of seeking global industrial dominance in cuttingedge sectors like robotics and renewable energies through a variety of illicit means.