Geneva - The U.S. on Tuesday filed two complaints against China with the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying the country provides "inadequate protection" against piracy of U.S. movies, music, games, books, software and other goods.

"Piracy and counterfeiting levels in China remain unacceptably high," said U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

"While the United States and China have been able to work cooperatively and pragmatically on a range of IPR issues, and China has taken numerous steps to improve its protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, we have not been able to agree on several important changes to China's legal regime that we believe are required by China's WTO commitments."

One complaint specifically charges that Chinese law provides a substantial "safe harbor" for wholesalers and retailers of pirated and counterfeit goods, and argues that quantitative thresholds for prosecution of counterfeiters be lowered.

It also criticizes rules for what happens to pirated goods after they are seized, and the state of copyright protection for works as they await Chinese censorship approval.

The other complaint seeks to eliminate "barriers" that U.S. publishers claim exist in getting their legitimate products into the Chinese marketplace.

Under WTO rules, if the U.S. and China do not resolve the matter within a 60-day consultation period, the U.S. may refer the matter to a WTO dispute settlement panel.

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http://tinyurl.com/ysahm6 (Reuters)