He said that the United States would have the equivalent of 2.1 million more jobs if foreign intellectual property standards were enforced to their fullest.
The commission said China accounted for between 50 and 80 percent of the stealing and alleged that the problem lay with policy decisions by Beijing — which has long made exports the key to its economic growth strategy.
The report said that US efforts have proven inadequate, with trade agreements failing to address intellectual property theft and China moving too slowly on pledges to the United States and other trade partners to take action.
The commission called for tougher measures by the United States including scrutinizing foreign companies’ treatment of intellectual property when they seek approval for investments in the world’s largest economy.
“You’ve got to have leverage in the game,” Huntsman said. “IP theft needs to have consequences and with costs sufficiently high that state and corporate behavior and attitudes that support such theft are fundamentally changed.”