China will hold consultations with the United States over
complaints about intellectual property rights next month and start
a high-level economic dialogue with Japan this year, according to a
senior trade official.
China and the United States will hold talks from June 5 to 8 in
Geneva to discuss the complaints Washington filed at the World
Trade Organization earlier last month, Ministry of Commerce
spokesman Wang Xinpei yesterday told a press conference in
Beijing.
The Unite States filed formal complaints over copyright piracy
and restrictions on the sale of US movies, music and books in
China, saying that billions of dollars are lost annually from
piracy levels that "remain unacceptably high".
Some other countries such as Japan, Canada and Mexico and the
European Union have reportedly asked to become third parties to the
talks.
The consultations will follow next week's second round of the
Sino-US strategic economic dialogue, in which IPR issues are likely
to be discussed.
Wang expects the latest round of the dialogue - to be held in
Washington on May 22 and 23 - to yield positive results.
"The two sides are in close touch with each other. We hope the
US will collaborate with China to ensure a positive outcome and
push the Sino-US relationship forward," he said.
The two sides will also touch on issues such as market access,
China's service industry and trade balance.
Also, China and Japan will kick off the first round of a
high-profile Sino-Japanese economic dialogue in Beijing this year,
Wang said.
The new mechanism is targeted at improving exchanges in
development strategies and macro economic policies,
cross-department economic cooperation and strengthening
communication over major issues.
The mechanism is expected to play a role for cooperation in some
key sectors such as energy, the environment, finance,
high-technology communication and intellectual property rights
protection, Wang said.
(China Daily May 17, 2007)