China says U.S. complaint won't solve piracy

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - A U.S. complaint to the World Trade Organisation over Chinese counterfeiting and commercial piracy will not help intellectual property cooperation between the two trade powers, a Chinese official said on Tuesday.

Earlier this month the Bush administration announced separate cases against China at the WTO over pirated copies of music and movies, and for placing market access barriers to U.S. companies offering legitimate products.

A spokesman for China's National Copyright Administration, Wang Ziqiang, said Washington's complaint was groundless and would not help solve the problem.

"The U.S. government's accusation that China's market access restrictions on films, books and audiovisual products are leading to rampant piracy does not stand up," Wang told a news conference in Beijing.

China regularly defends its record on fighting piracy, saying it is a developing country and needs time. But pirated movies and music discs are openly sold in shops and on street corners in Chinese cities for as little as 8 yuan (about $1) a copy.

While China controlled the number of U.S. films entering every year, there were large numbers of other audiovisual products and books allowed in, Wang said.

"The U.S. government's complaint to the WTO over China's intellectual property rights problems will not help bilateral cooperation over intellectual property," he added.

"GLOBAL PROBLEM"

China's market does suffer from piracy, but the problem is a global one that includes countries such as Canada, that do not face threats of WTO action, Wang said.

And many pirated goods for sale in China come from other countries, added Yin Xintian, spokesman for the State Intellectual Property Office.

"The proper way (to solve the problem) is to talk and cooperate, not criticize each other," he said.

"No country in the world has made as much effort at protecting intellectual property as China," Yin said, adding that last year law enforcement agents seized 73 million pirated goods, including books and software discs.

While neither official gave a direct explanation for the continued, obvious availability of fake DVDs and designer goods, another said he thought this problem was limited to major cities like Beijing and Shanghai and was not representative.

"Some stores in Beijing have already stopped selling fake goods, but still some people go in asking for them," said Zhao Gang from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce's Trademark Office.

"Then they produce pictures of what they want, and some store owners can't resist the temptation and they find some other way of providing these fake goods," he added.