John R. Kasich is the former governor of Ohio, serving from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, he was previously a member of the House of Representatives. He is the author of "Two Paths: America Divided or United." Marc L. Busch is the Karl F. Landegger Professor of International Business Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. The opinions expressed in this commentary are their own.

Despite President Donald Trump's move on Friday to increase tariffs on $200 billion of China's exports, the end to the US-China trade war may soon be within reach. If and when that happens, the question will be whether the United States can achieve lasting commercial "peace" with China.

President Trump is not the first to express frustration with China, but his on-the-fly tariff strategy is not the answer. On the contrary, his tariffs have cost American consumers and businesses and cut off our ranchers and farmers from selling to China. The president's tariff strategy has also put Washington at odds with allies, whose help we need in dealing with China and keeping the global economy open.

Looking to get out of this mess, President Trump wants China to make concessions on market access, government subsidies and intellectual property. All three are worth the fight, but mostly via multilateral efforts, and not just with the means the president is proposing.

US exporters of goods and services need a predictable path into China's market. And American firms shouldn't have to compete with subsidized Chinese vendors, especially not state-owned enterprises. But these issues can't be resolved on a two-nation basis. They require multilateral attention, either at the World Trade Organization or through engagement in trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

There is, however, one bilateral initiative that the United States should pursue with China: an investment treaty to protect intellectual property rights. Our trade negotiations have not gone far enough in curbing Beijing's forced technology transfer requirements, a practice that forces American firms to share their ideas with Chinese rivals in order to sell to — or invest in — China. These "ideas" come in all forms of American-bred intellectual property, the very backbone of our ideas-based economy: our designs, innovations, medical advances and creative products.

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