US Won't Negotiate With China On IP, Commerce Secretary Announces

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

03 June 2005

Speaking at the start of a three-day visit to China on Thursday, US Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez announced that the US authorities will not negotiate with their Chinese counterparts over intellectual property protection.

Gutierrez told businessmen attending a Chamber of Commerce luncheon that:

"Intellectual property rights are not up for negotiation, and frankly abuse of intellectual property rights is not acceptable."

He continued:

"Intellectual property rights violations are a crime and we don't believe we should be negotiating crimes with our trading partners. We need some help here, and if there's one thing I'm asking the Chinese government for, it is help, because we are both going to be at risk."

However, Gutierrez went on to reveal that the government was prepared to negotiate with Beijing in the growing row over China's textile exports.

Following the US' imposition of quotas on Chinese textiles and the EU's appeal to the WTO - which also means the imposition of quotas - the Chinese reacted angrily last month, withdrawing conciliatory export tariffs which were to have been quintupled from June 1.

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