Friday, March 31, 2006
United States Cites 62 Trading Partners
AP via Yahoo! News
The Bush administration on Friday cited 62 trading partners for erecting unfair barriers to American exports, with China coming in for criticism in such areas as failure to crack down on copyright piracy.
[...]
"We have an aggressive and proactive agenda to open markets and reduce trade barriers," said Jim Mendenhall, the general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. "Our job is to break down these barriers."
One of the country's receiving a large amount of attention in the new report was China, criticism that was seen as part of an ongoing effort by the administration to demonstrate it is taking a harder line with China in an effort to reduce a trade deficit with that country which hit an all-time high of $202 billion last year.
The San Francisco Chronicle had additional information:
In the new report, China was cited for inadquate enforcement of laws aimed at protecting U.S. copyrights of music, movies and computer programs.
The United States joined with the European Union on Thursday to file a case before the World Trade Organization accusing China of levying unfair taxes on auto parts made in the United States and other foreign countries. The administration is seeking to force China to make a number of trade concessions in coming weeks to address the huge trade gap with the United States in advance of the visit in mid-April of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington.
"China remains a serious and growing concern" because of its failure to crack down on rampant piracy of American copyrighted products, Medenhall said. He said that Russia was also presented significant problems in protecting American copyrights.
The Bush administration on Friday cited 62 trading partners for erecting unfair barriers to American exports, with China coming in for criticism in such areas as failure to crack down on copyright piracy.
[...]
"We have an aggressive and proactive agenda to open markets and reduce trade barriers," said Jim Mendenhall, the general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. "Our job is to break down these barriers."
One of the country's receiving a large amount of attention in the new report was China, criticism that was seen as part of an ongoing effort by the administration to demonstrate it is taking a harder line with China in an effort to reduce a trade deficit with that country which hit an all-time high of $202 billion last year.
The San Francisco Chronicle had additional information:
In the new report, China was cited for inadquate enforcement of laws aimed at protecting U.S. copyrights of music, movies and computer programs.
The United States joined with the European Union on Thursday to file a case before the World Trade Organization accusing China of levying unfair taxes on auto parts made in the United States and other foreign countries. The administration is seeking to force China to make a number of trade concessions in coming weeks to address the huge trade gap with the United States in advance of the visit in mid-April of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington.
"China remains a serious and growing concern" because of its failure to crack down on rampant piracy of American copyrighted products, Medenhall said. He said that Russia was also presented significant problems in protecting American copyrights.
