Washington – The U.S. movie and music industries have long sought the kind of trade action against China announced by the Bush administration Monday, but it could still take years for Hollywood and the recording industry to see a financial benefit.
The legal dispute that U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab is initiating at the World Trade Organization can take 12 to 18 months to be resolved under WTO rules, trade experts said. Even if the U.S. wins the two cases it plans to file today, China could delay for several more years any steps it is required to take.
“The U.S. and China have butted heads over intellectual property rights for two decades and could easily do so for two decades more,” said Greg Mastel, a former congressional trade policy adviser.
In Beijing, the Xinhua News Agency reported the Chinese government expressed “great regret and strong dissatisfaction” at the U.S. complaints.
Schwab said Monday that the U.S. will file one case that focuses on shortcomings in China’s enforcement of its copyright laws and another on China’s restrictions on the import and sale of legitimate movies, books and other copyrighted goods.
Stakes for U.S. companies are high. The Motion Picture Association of America, whose members include Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Entertainment and News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox, says U.S. copyright industries lost about $2.3 billion to Chinese piracy in 2005.
The concerns extend to U.S. manufacturers, who say everything from auto parts to industrial instrument gauges are illegally copied.
