U.S. Trade Rep. Susan Schwab holds up a pirated DVD as she talks about two WTO cases against China during a news conference in Washington April 9, 2007. The two cases involve China's alleged lack of enforcing copyrights and trademarks and China's barriers to trade in books, music, videos and movies. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
GENEVA, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States
on Tuesday formally filed two WTO complaints against China over so-called
copyright piracy and restrictions on the sale of American books, music, videos
and movies.
The U.S. trade delegation in Geneva has handed
related documents to the World Trade Organization (WTO), formally setting in
motion the WTO's dispute settlement procedure, a trade source said.
The Chinese mission to the WTO confirmed it had
received the complaints and also a request for consultations from the U.S. side.
WTO dispute settlement procedures stipulate 60 days
for consultations between the United States and China. If the consultations
fail, the United States could ask for a WTO panel to investigate and rule on the
dispute.
The two new cases represent the latest effort by the
Bush administration to increase pressure on China in the area of trade despite
Beijing's active efforts in cracking down on piracy.
In late March, the U.S. government announced its
decision to impose penalty tariffs against the imports of Chinese coated free
sheet paper, a decision altering a 23 year-old bipartisan policy of not applying
the countervailing duty (CVD) law to China.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday responded
strongly to the latest U.S. move at the WTO, saying it "runs contrary to the
consensus between the leaders of the two nations about strengthening bilateral
trade ties and properly solving trade disputes."
"It will seriously undermine the cooperative
relations the two nations have established in the field and will adversely
affect bilateral trade," a spokesman said.
NANCHANG, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China's top intellectual
property rights (IPR) official lashed out on Tuesday at the United States' WTO
complaint over alleged "copyright piracy" in China.
"It's not a sensible move for the U.S. government to file
such complaint," said Tian Lipu, commissioner of the Intellectual Property
Office, at a national meeting of IPR officials in Nanchang, capital of east
China's Jiangxi Province. Full story
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