By Mark Drajem
Washington - China and Russia were singled out for criticism in the US government's annual report on the piracy of copyright materials around the world.
The report by the US Trade Representative's office said that China "lags far behind" on pledges from 2004 and 2005 to crackdown on pirated goods. The office said it is "stepping up" consideration of bringing a complaint against China at the World
Trade Organisation over its weak enforcement of copyrights for movies, music and books.
The US also will launch an unprecedented review of
intellectual property rights, or IPR, at the Chinese provincial level this year, the report said.
"Inadequate IPR enforcement is one of China's greatest shortcomings as a trading partner,'' the annual Special 301 report said.
The US has made the protection of intellectual property the centrepiece of its trade agenda. It cites China as the centre of global production for illegal copies of a wide variety of items including Harry Potter books, Microsoft software,
Louis Vuitton handbags, automotive parts, and pharmaceuticals.
In addition to illegal goods being made in China for sale in China, pirated goods are now being exported to the US in record numbers, according to the US.
In the report, the trade office devoted more space to China than to any other country, providing a detailed 10-page description of how Chinese companies are illegally copying US optical discs and other products. For the first time, the US
provided a list of specific markets where pirated goods are being sold, and details on Internet sites it says allow for the downloading of pirated songs.
"Industry sources in 2005 continued to estimate that levels of piracy in China across all lines of copyright business are 85 to 93 percent, indicating little to no improvement" since 2004,
the report said. "Internet piracy is increasing and end-user piracy of business software and other copyright materials, such as books and journals, remains a key concern."
Russia is negotiating with the US and other countries about trying to get into the World Trade Organisation. US lawmakers such as Republican Clay Shaw of Florida say they won't back Russia's entry until it does a better job of protecting US
copyrights and trademarks.
At a trade summit between Portman and Vice-Premier Wu Yi earlier this month in Washington, China pledged to force computer makers to install operating software on all new computers in
order to try to dampen demand for knock-off versions of software, and to launch more criminal prosecutions of copyright offenders.
Earlier this year, at the behest of the US, China shut down more than a dozen plants that made pirated digital discs.
In addition to China and Russia, the US listed the
following countries as being among the worst violators of intellectual property rights: Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Paraguay, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy, Chu Maoming, didn't return a telephone call. A spokesperson for the Russian embassy, Yevgeniy Khorishko, declined to comment, saying Russian officials haven't seen the report yet. - Bloomberg