MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China warns cooperation with US could be ”seriously undermined

China warned this week that the recent complaints filed by the United States against China to the World Trade Organization (WTO) would seriously damage cooperation between the two countries.

"It will seriously undermine bilateral cooperation on intellectual property rights (IPR) under the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade framework and damage the existing cooperative ties on market access for publications" said Vice Premier Wu Yi at a high-profile IPR forum in Beijing. Earlier this month, the United States filed two complaints to the WTO against China over copyright infringements and restrictions on the sale of US books, music, videos and movies. "It is the first time a WTO member has lodged two complaints simultaneously against another member and it will have a very negative impact," Wu said. She complained that the US behavior ran counter to the consensus once reached by the leaders of the two countries to advocate dialogue as the way to settle disputes. IPR protection is a universal issue that can be guaranteed only through cooperation among various countries, she said. Wu noted that the Chinese government would respond actively to the US complaints according to relevant WTO rules. "We will not cower away," she said. Last year China confiscated more than 73 million pirated products, including 18 million books, 1.1 million periodicals, 48 million audio-visual products, 2.01 million electronic publications and 3.79 million software discs. Last week, China's Supreme Court further lowered the threshold for prosecuting manufacturers and vendors of counterfeit intellectual property products. The new rules state that anyone who manufactures 500 or more counterfeit copies (discs) of computer software, music, movies, TV shows and other audio-video products can be prosecuted and face a prison term of up to three years. The new regulations replace the 2004 rules which only applied to those who produced 1,000 pirated discs. The Chinese government also announced that all large State-owned enterprises will begin using genuine software this year in an effort to combat counterfeit programs. "There are many participants from large SOEs and I want to tell you: you must pay close attention to this," Wu said at an international forum on intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. She added that other State-owned enterprises and foreign or private companies should also consider using legal software. Nine Chinese ministries met earlier this year to discuss how to promote the use of genuine copies of software by State-owned companies. Beijing has also ordered personal computer makers to only sell computers with genuine copies of operating systems. This prompted four domestic computer makers, including the top three in the market, to sign 570 million US dollars worth of contracts with Microsoft last year. However the press reports that the Beijing DVD market has been flooded with counterfeit copes of the last Hollywood hit, "Spider Man 3", two weeks before the movie is officially launched in United States movies.