US Takes China IPR Flap to the WTO
The dispute is one of five the US has lodged with the trade group against China
WASHINGTON, DC – 08/15/07 – The US has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to set up a panel to settle its intellectual property rights (IPRs) dispute with China after the two sides failed to negotiate an agreement.
Sean Spicer, spokesman for the US Trade Representative (USTR), said China has taken “tangible steps” to improve IPR protection and enforcement in recent years, but the US still sees "important gaps that need to be addressed.”
The US and China, he said, “have tried, through formal consultations over the last three months, to resolve differences arising from US concerns about inadequate protection of intellectual property rights in China.”
That dialogue “has not generated solutions to the issues we have raised, so we are asking the WTO to form a panel to settle this dispute,” he added.
Under existing rules, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body in Geneva, Switzerland will consider the US request at its next meeting on August 31. That panel will have six to 12 months to decide on the case.
The US filed a complaint to the world trade body over China's protection and enforcement of copyright and trademarks in April. Bilateral consultations on that complaint were held in June.
The IPR case is one of five disputes the US has lodged with the WTO aimed at China.It is the third case lodged against China in which the US has requested a WTO dispute settlement panel.
In September 2006, Washington requested a panel examine Beijing's regulations on imposing local content requirements in the auto sector.
In July, it called for a panel to look into China's so-called industry subsidies, while a dispute over market access to films, music, home entertainment videos and publications is also under consultation.
Go
back, or read the latest Front Page stories:
Obama Should Complete Doha Round, CEOs Say
NEW YORK 11/20/08 A number of senior level corporate executives are urging the incoming Obama Administration to complete the long-stalled Doha Round of international trade talks in a new report published by the Wall Street Journal; responding to the report, New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer said that the Obama Administration and ''Democrats in general think we should trade in the global world,'' but concerns about ''income inequality'' should make business and government ''work together to cushion the blow.''
LA, LB Ports Delay Collection of Clean Truck Fees
LONG BEACH 11/15/08 The controversial Clean Truck Program at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has run into a snag as the collection of the fees generated by the program has been delayed until discussions between the Federal Maritime Commission and West Coast marine terminal operators over ''procedural issues'' are completed; in October, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a friend of the court brief in support of a challenge by the American Trucking Association (ATA) to the Concession Plan provision of the program.
No Trade, Free Trade, Fair Trade: The World Opines
LOS ANGELES 11/05/08 While US trade policy hovered as a decidedly back-burner issue during the recently concluded presidential campaign, the importance of the countrys trade relations with the world and the possibility of an Obama Administration following through on its protectionist campaign rhetoric is taking center stage with newspapers and other news media outlets from Manila to Berlin; the following excerpts from media sources around the world cover the gamut from cautious optimism to predictions of retaliation against US exports by US trade partners.
|
![](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=h8BN5KCpRYw&offerid=20386.10000001&type=4&subid=0"><IMG width="120" height="60" alt="blue box" border="0" src="http://www.site59.com/global/images/affiliate/120_60(bl)_01.gif"></a><IMG border="0" width="1" height="1" src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=h8BN5KCpRYw&bids=20386.10000001&type=4&subid=0">){kind=link}