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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rarebird who wrote (761076)	4/8/2007 5:13:10 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

"The US owes China money, not the other way around." Yes, I know. (But we print it out of paper... and there is always 'Helicopter-drop Bernanke' to consider. :-) "... That means that if the US puts up tariffs, China cannot continue to re-lend the money it earns from its exports to the US back into the US economy." To a degree that can be true.... For EXAMPLE: How much trade impairment are we talking about? Nominal (& perhaps to be chalked-up in the 'just hard negotiating' category), or significant levels of impairment and disruption? It is also important to remember that --- granted a trend of steadily depreciating US fiat currency (a politician's favorite way of reducing the magnitude of debt obligations and repayments...) --- then China's 'need' to continually purchase more-and-more US denominated debt to 'sterilize' it's accumulating mountain of dollar denominated foreign exchange results in a STEADY INVESTMENT LOSS to China.... And, yet... then continue to purchase our debt, even while knowing full-well that, from a straight-up investment perspective, it is a bad investment. Obviously, the Chinese not being known for stupidity, there are other factors that play into this policy decision. Including, prominently, the political decision that only major unrest can threaten their hold on power... and only large scale unemployment or bad economic times can produce enough popular unrest to threaten the current system... and only the continuation of their domination in foreign trading can provide the jobs that assure the elites hold on power (& their profits). While I do not suggest that they are prepared to accept these investment losses forever (indeed: there are indications they are ALREADY shifting their investment focus to hard assets, equities, etc.), still I regard it as unlikely that pressure for a fairer or more balanced trade relationship is going to bring ruin and doom down on our heads. (At least: no more likely then a continuation of the current un-balanced and therefore unsustainable system).

To: Rarebird who wrote (761076)	4/9/2007 4:26:07 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

U.S. to File WTO Cases Against China Alleging Piracy (Update1) By Mark Drajem bloomberg.com April 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. said it will file two complaints against China at the World Trade Organization aimed at stopping what it said is piracy of copyrighted movies, music, software and books. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced today that cases will be filed tomorrow at the Geneva-based trade arbiter. One case argues that China sets too high a value on pirated movie or music disks before prosecuting violators. The second objects to Chinese restrictions on the sale of foreign books and movies. ``This is something our industry has been frustrated about for a very long time,'' Dan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in an interview. The WTO complaints ``are long overdue.'' The cases escalate trade tensions between the economic powerhouses. They represent the second time this year that the U.S. will have gone to the WTO to protest grievances against China, which ran up a record trade surplus of $232.5 billion with the U.S. last year. In February, the U.S. filed a WTO complaint aimed at what it called illegal subsidies to exporters. ``We hope the initiation of these two WTO actions will encourage changes to laws and other measures that have stood in the way of protection in China,'' Schwab said at a news conference in Washington. The complaint about widespread sale of pirated disks dates back at least a decade with China. In 1996, the U.S. was set to levy billions of dollars of sanctions against China before the Chinese agreed at the last minute to new measures to curb the export of pirated recordings and computer software. Over the past three years, U.S. officials have complained often and loudly about what they say is the scale of theft of trademarked and copyrighted goods. The administration was set to file the complaints twice before, only to delay at the last minute as the Chinese government and some U.S. companies urged patience. Duties for Subsidies China's copying of movies, music and software cost companies $2.2 billion in 2006 sales, according to an estimate by lobby groups representing Microsoft Corp., Walt Disney Co., and Vivendi SA. The WTO complaints will be the first by the U.S. against China for breaching intellectual property rights in a country where copying has extended to handbags, golf clubs and even pharmaceuticals. Last month, the Bush administration decided to levy duties on imports of coated paper from China to compensate for Chinese subsidies to exporters. The move was a reversal of two decades of policy that exempted non-market economies such as China from tariffs to compensate for subsidies. In February, the U.S. went to the WTO to protest subsidies such as loan write-offs and tax rebates provided to Chinese exporters. The commercial tensions may only increase: lawmakers in both houses of Congress are preparing legislation aimed at getting China to raise the value of its currency and import more U.S. products and services. Consultations Requested Under WTO procedures, the U.S. will formally ask for consultations with China about the issues of intellectual property rights today. Only after 60 days can the U.S. ask for an independent panel to adjudicate the dispute. Pirated DVDs including Time Warner Inc.'s Academy Award- winning movie ``The Departed'' sell for less than $1 on the streets of Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai. The movie, record and publishing companies argue that a reason for piracy could be the limits placed on U.S. publishers and movie companies. Overseas publishers are only allowed to sell non-Chinese books, magazines and newspapers through five- star hotels while movie studios can show only a limited number of overseas films every year in China. ``The legal obstacles standing between these legitimate products and the consumers in China give IPR pirates the upper hand in the Chinese market,'' Schwab said in a statement. Chinese Cracking Down China last week announced a crackdown on hawkers of counterfeit goods and halved the criminal thresholds for prosecuting pirates. Possession of 500 pirated DVDs, rather than 1,000, would lead to criminal prosecution, the Supreme People's Court said, according to the Chinese Embassy in Washington. That was a step in the right direction, but doesn't go far enough, Schwab said. ``The thresholds create a safe harbor for pirates,'' she said. A vendor need only make sure he has only 499 illegal videos or CDs on hand, and ``the most Chinese authorities could do would be to seize the goods and impose an administrative fine,'' she said. ``The proprietor could resume business in a short period of time without fear of prosecution.'' The U.S. wants the thresholds eliminated, and seeks new rules on the disposal of pirated items seized by Chinese customs authorities. -- With reporting by Li Yanping and Eugene Tang in Beijing. Editor: Arthur. To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net ; Li Yanping in Beijing on yli16@bloomberg.net Last Updated: April 9, 2007 13:44 EDT