WTO: China Unfairly Limiting Foreign Entertainment Imports

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 12, 2009 - 8:17pm.

Hong Kong - China has been found in violation of international free trade rules by the World Trade Organization (WTO), which said it was unfairly limiting imports of foreign intellectual property like movies and books, The New York Times reported.

"This decision promises to level the playing field for American companies working to distribute high-quality entertainment products in China, so that legitimate American products can get to market and beat out the pirates," said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

The U.S. initiated the WTO dispute process "after unsuccessful consultations" with the Chinese.

The WTO also found that China was unfairly disallowing U.S. companies from partnering with Chinese enterprises in joint ventures to sell music on the Internet.

The Times noted that China has regulations on how many foreign movies that can be shown annually in its theaters.

The WTO declined to address U.S. complaints that China's censors, and state authorities governing foreign distributors, were also unfairly restricting imports.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ps3k3 (USTR statement)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/business/global/13trade.html