China offers US firms opportunities but must protect copyright: US official
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China's booming market offers opportunities for US manufacturers but Beijing must crack down on copyright violations, US Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Grant Aldonas said.
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(InfoWorld) - China and Russia are the two worst foreign infringers of U.S. software and music copyrights and they should remain on the U.S. government's priority watch list, a group representing the software, music, books, and movie industries said Monday. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) put out the figures as part of its recommendations to the U.S. Trade Representative. It asked government officials to keep both countries on its Priority Watch List when it meets to discuss the annual Special 301 review of copyright piracy. The list is compiled each year, and nations placed on the list are watched closely for signs of improvement. Failure to take action can result in countries losing certain duty-free trade privileges. The IIPA said the worst 60 foreign music and software pirating nations cost industry members $15.25 billion last year, compared to $15.83 billion in year earlier. The figure could be as much as $35 billion if the U.S. and the rest of the world are included, IIPA estimated. The figures are based on statistics supplied by member associations. China topped all rivals on the IIPA most-wanted list by pumping out $2.21 billion worth of pirated goods last year, mainly business software, according to IIPA figures. Russia ran a close second at $2.18 billion, it said. China's 2006 figure marks a slight improvement over the previous year, when the IIPA estimated its piracy at $2.37 billion, but Russia took a sharp turn for the worse. In 2005,Â Russian copyright piracyÂ only cost IIAP members $1.76 billion, the group said. Music, software and movie trade groups view the Special 301 process as the best means available for them to encourage greater copyright protection globally, IIAP said. The group recommended that 16 countries, including Canada, China, Mexico, and Russia, be placed on the Priority Watch List, putting them up for the highest degree of scrutiny. Canada and Mexico, the U.S.'s border neighbors, are two of its biggest trading partners. Italy escaped an IIPA recommendation for the priority list despite hosting the third worst copyright infringement problem, by value, on the group's list. Italy pirated $1.43 billion worth of U.S. software and songs last year, down slightly from $1.62 billion the year before, according to the IIPA. The group said its decision to recommend a country for the top list is based on the total amount and on efforts to improve. IIPA recommended that Italy be placed on the Special 301 Watch List, along with 27 other countries or territories. The IIPA is comprised of seven business associations, including the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In all, the associations represent over 1,900 U.S. companies.
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China turned the tables on the United States, urging Washington to take "necessary actions" to stop the slide of the dollar and restore equilibrium to global currency markets, a senior Chinese official said.
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BEIJING, Sept. 20 -- The United States and China on Wednesday announced plans for a string of high-level talks on tense economic issues -- among them, the value of China's currency, its enormous trade surplus and the routine theft of intellectual property.
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The Bush administration said Tuesday that China does not meet the technical requirements of a country that is manipulating its currency to gain unfair trade advantages.
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The move could defuse a confrontation with the Bush administration, which is considering a limit on clothing imports because of fears that China's textile industry will swamp producers in the United States.
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China is seeking to unseat the  United States as the dominant power in cyberspace, a U.S. Air  Force general leading a new push in this area said Wednesday.
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China will buy more American-made products and crack down harder on people who steal intellectual property, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said yesterday amid growing discontent in the United States over a soaring trade deficit with Beijing.
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The United States has asked the  World Trade Organization to decide whether several Chinese  subsidy programs violate global trade rules after direct talks  with Beijing failed, the U.S. Trade Representative&#39;s office  said on Thursday.
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China's military modernization is aimed at achieving parity with the United States and not limited to its drive for reunification with Taiwan, the US intelligence chief said Tuesday.
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The U.S. textile industry petitioned the Bush administration on Tuesday for protection from what American companies fear will be a flood of Chinese products coming into this country when worldwide quotas are removed on Jan. 1.
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China will consider adopting measures to protect its interests and those of its trading partners once global textile quotas are scrapped at the end of this month, a government spokesman said on Friday.
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The Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will seek to negotiate a voluntary anticounterfeiting trade agreement with several major trading partners, the office said Tuesday.The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will focus countries on anticounterfeiting efforts, including international cooperation, best practices for fighting piracy, and developing strong legal frameworks for fighting piracy, USTR said in a news release.&quot;Global counterfeiting and piracy steal billions of dollars from workers, artists, and entrepreneurs each year and jeopardize the health and safety of citizens across the world,&quot; Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in a statement.The action earned the USTR praise from several companies and groups, including the Motion Picture Association of America and Microsoft.Developing international protections against counterfeiting and piracy is &quot;key to protecting innovation and ensuring that the global economy continues to grow unfettered by [intellectual property] theft,&quot; Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft&#39;s managing director of federal government affairs, said in a statement.Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, also applauded the USTR announcement.&quot;Intellectual property thieves aren&#39;t just stealing American ideas, they&#39;re stealing dollars from U.S. businesses and stealing jobs out from under U.S. workers,&quot; Baucus said in a statement. &quot;And the problem of intellectual property theft is rampant worldwide.&quot;The trade agreement would complement the work of President George Bush&#39;s administration to encourage other countries through the World Trade Organization to enforce intellectual-property rights, the USTR said. But the ACTA would set a higher benchmark for intellectual-property enforcement that countries can join voluntarily, USTR said.
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BEIJING  - Adding to pressure for China to stop rampant product piracy, two major U.S. business groups complained Thursday that abuses are getting worse and warned that lack of patent and copyright protection is hurting high-tech investment.
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China vowed on Sunday to improve  the "grave situation" of music piracy in the country, as it  hosted the annual music industry event here to learn and  exchange ideas with companies from around the world.
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SHANGHAI - U.S. officials earlier this month denied visas to four representatives of a group developing China's WAPI (Wireless LAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) security protocol for wireless networks, raising questions in China about the U.S. government's commitment to greater Chinese involvement in setting technical standards.
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China has promised to pursue product pirates identified by American authorities in a new effort to stamp out its thriving counterfeit industry, the head of the U.S. customs agency said Friday.