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To: jmhollen who wrote (6103)	3/26/2000 12:16:00 AM
From: jmhollen	Respond to of 7209

"....From the jus' so's ya know Department....": Hollywood backs permanent trade status for China LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Major film studios and record labels gave strong backing Thursday to the Clinton administration's efforts to grant China permanent normal trade relations status this year. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky offered some hope to executives that Congress would enact legislation to do just that, opening the door for more American films and music, movie theater development and jobs in China. "Even though the fight is going to be a hard fight ... I think we will be successful and I think China will achieve permanent normal trade relations status," she said in round-table discussions at the 20th Century Fox movie studio. China has been granted normal trade status -- formerly known as most favored nation status -- on a temporary basis every year for about 20 years. In exchange for China's opening its markets under a landmark trade deal that would pave the way for Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization, the White House says Congress must grant Beijing permanent normal trade relations (NTR) -- a status it now gets only after an annual congressional review. Permanent NTR would guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets as products from nearly every other nation. Many lawmakers, particularly Democrats in the House of Representatives, are reluctant to grant China permanent trading privileges because of concerns about human rights and opposition from U.S. labor unions, which say the trade pact would destroy American jobs. The issue holds great significance in Hollywood where the studios and music companies see major opportunities for growth overseas. The Chinese film market is minuscule compared to that of the United States, with American films taking in only about $20 million in revenue a year in China for the studios, based on a 10-film yearly quota set by the Chinese. That quota was recently doubled to 20 films in agreements hammered out by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) trade group, trade officials and the Chinese. Jack Valenti, who heads the MPAA, said the opportunity was not in current distribution but in future access to markets in China, home to about one-fifth of the world's population. "To deny permanent trade status would be a mystifying blunder," Valenti said. "If not granted, we will see a loss of momentum" in opening Chinese markets, said Larry Kaplan, executive vice president of Walt Disney Co. unit Buena Vista International. In past years, Chinese businessmen have been the source of a huge influx of pirated movies and music in Asian markets, which has irked the studios and record labels. To stem the piracy, Barshefsky spearheaded the 1995-1996 U.S.-China intellectual property rights agreement to crack down on piracy, and part of her message to Hollywood was that the agreement had worked to a great extent. She said the problem in China now was that instead of becoming a huge exporter of pirated home videos and music CDs, it was a net importer of the illegal goods. Her comments were echoed by Jeff Harleston, a senior vice president at Universal Music Group, who called the 1995-1996 agreement "a spectacular success." "In the years since those agreements have been in effect, China has followed through," Harleston said. The meeting included officials from the Walt Disney Co., Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. movie and home video group, Fox Entertainment Group Inc., Seagram Company Ltd.'s Universal music, and various trade groups. All agreed that granting NTR was a needed "next step."