China and the United States have held consultations in Geneva on
issues involving the protection of intellectual property rights
(IPR), the Chinese Mission to the World Trade Organization (WTO)
said on Saturday.
The consultations were held from Thursday to Friday within the
framework of the WTO's dispute settlement system. The United States
had earlier complained to the WTO about copyright piracy in
China.
In the consultations, China reiterated that it had always
attached great importance to the protection of intellectual
property rights.
Since its accession to the WTO, China has honored its WTO
commitments and undertaken international obligations on
intellectual property rights (IPR) and made great achievements on
IPR legislation and enforcement which are well recognized and
highly valued by the entire world, the Chinese delegation said.
China recalled that Article 1.1 of the Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs
Agreement) provides in its very beginning that WTO members "shall
be free to determine the appropriate method of implementing the
provisions of the TRIPs Agreement within their own legal system and
practice."
Immediately after its accession to the WTO, China devoted great
efforts to adjusting and modifying its IPR-related laws and
regulations comprehensively, hence effectively ensuring the
consistency of its legislation with the requirements of relevant
WTO rules.
With regard to certain Chinese measures challenged by the United
States in this case, China said that it "firmly believes such
measures are fully consistent with the TRIPs Agreement and should
bear no blame."
"China strongly opposes any attempt by any other WTO member to
impose additional obligations beyond the TRIPs Agreement through
inappropriate application of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism,
and believes that the impact resulted therefrom would by no means
be accepted by other developing members," it said.
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According to the Chinese mission to the WTO, the two-day
consultations could to some extent help clarify certain issues and
contribute to better communication between China and the United
States.
However, it regrettably noted that the US had failed to
correctly understand China's legal system and basic concepts
concerning IPR protection.
On the other hand, the US, having spent long time preparing a
lengthy list of questions, left China only one week to respond to
them, the Chinese mission said.
"China hopes that the United States will take serious
consideration of the information that China has provided in the
consultations in order to correctly evaluate China's laws on IPR
protection and make a right decision for the next step," the
Chinese mission said in a statement.
It also reiterated that China's IPR protection efforts are not
only out of the necessity of developing its own economy, but also
constitute an integral part of such efforts by the international
community as a whole, hence playing a positive role in enhancing
global IPR protection.
As a developing country, China will further strengthen its IPR
protection endeavor.
According to the Chinese mission, from Tuesday to Wednesday,
China and the US also held consultations on issues involving the
market access of publications.
(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2007)