Beijing pledges to fight Washington's WTO piracy complaint to the very end
Beijing will fight 'to the very end' Washington's complaint to the World Trade Organisation over its alleged violations of trade barriers and intellectual property rights, Vice-Premier Wu Yi said.
'I hereby express that China, according to the rules of the WTO, will aggressively challenge this case to the very end,' she told US business leaders in Washington on Thursday night.
Her comments were directed at last month's decision by the Office of United States Trade Representative to file two formal complaints with the WTO alleging deficiencies in the mainland's protection and enforcement of copyrights and trademarks, and barriers to trade in books, music, and videos. The act was seen by Beijing as a political move by the Bush administration to placate growing protectionist sentiment in the US Congress.
Ms Wu said the complaints would have a 'serious impact' on the co-operative framework between China and the US to resolve IPR issues and disregarded Beijing's strong efforts to crack down on such violations.
'It is regrettable that the USTR office recently has ignored the achievement of Chinese improvements ... The action is against the leadership of both countries who advocate a common desire to co-operate to solve such issues,' Ms Wu said.
She said Beijing had adopted and implemented a comprehensive strategy to improve the situation.
