US to complain to WTO about China

CNN.com reports that the White House will make major announcement this week about two complaints to the World Trade Organization (WTO) accusing China of unfair trade practices.

Formal legal action by the US comes after months of pressing China for a crack down on pirated U.S. films, music and software.

The complaints to the WTO are an attempt to show Congress that the administration is getting tough on the trade front due to concerns about U.S. jobs.

Several trade deals are stalled on Capitol Hill and the move is an effort to drum up support among Democrats amid allegations the White House has not done enough to get real action from China.


In China however a state news agency said on Friday that China has extended criminal penalties for music and movie piracy to people caught with smaller amounts of DVDs or CDs, after foreign complaints about poor enforcement.

Foreign governments and the film and music industries have been pressing China to stamp out it's rampant product piracy industry.

The Supreme People's Court in an order last Thursday, cut in half the number of counterfeit DVDs, CDs or other audiovisual products that trigger criminal penalties of up to three years in prison, the Xinhua News Agency said.

The court also raised fines for smaller offenders.

Anyone caught with 500 pirated discs will face criminal prosecution instead of fines, down from the previous 1,000 discs, Xinhua said. The number of discs that triggers more severe penalties of up to seven years in prison was cut in half to 2,500.

"The latest judicial change seems to be aimed at addressing overseas complaints that the country is too lenient" with pirates, Xinhua said. It claimed this was "a stern warning" and expects cases to rise.

China is generally seen as the world's leading source of illegally copied products.

The supreme court told lower courts to start accepting piracy cases filed by companies and individuals as well as those brought by prosecutors.

Jon Dudas, Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, visited Beijing last month and pressed Chinese officials to lower the threshold for prosecution.

This week, the government said police in the southern city of Guangzhou carried out China's biggest seizure of pirated DVDs and CDs to date, seizing 1.8 million discs on March 17.

Police arrested 13 people and seized 30 disc reproduction machines.