Community | August 12, 2009 | 7 comments

U.S. defeats China in crucial media trade case

Image
current89
GENEVA - The United States has defeated China in a wide-ranging ruling at the World Trade Organization that could provide massive market opportunities for American makers of everything from CDs and DVDs to music downloads and books.

The verdict Wednesday finds definitively against China for forcing American media producers to route their business in China through Chinese state-owned companies. It could also set a larger precedent for others such as U.S. automakers claiming to be hampered by cumbersome distribution rules in the communist country.

The WTO victory comes as President Barack Obama is being pressed to be tough on trade rules with China, which many Democrats in the U.S. Congress blame for America's soaring trade deficits and lost manufacturing jobs.

The Associated Press reported the main findings of the then-confidential ruling last month, but the public release of the 464-page document on Wednesday revealed dozens of smaller decisions that support the complaints of trade associations representing record labels such as EMI and Sony BMG; publishers including McGraw Hill and Simon & Schuster; and, to a lesser extent, the major Hollywood studios of Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Universal and 20th Century Fox.

It also offers hopes of greater business for Apple Inc.'s iTunes store, finding that China was breaking trade rules by preventing companies offering music downloads to computers and mobile phones from offering their services directly to Chinese customers.

The ruling stopped short of a complete U.S. victory as the three-member panel delivered mixed findings on Chinese censorship rules that apply to American-made goods, but not to Chinese products. It also permitted China to make U.S. films go through one of two designated distributors to be shown in Chinese cinemas, a requirement not required of Chinese movies.

end of excerpt

Source: MSNBC
  1. groups:
    Community,   World Politics,   YWR,   International Politics,   5 more
  2. tags:
  3.     
    |

7 comments // U.S. defeats China in crucial media trade case

  • mirror
    • 0
      mirror  
    • Its the Chinese government consolidation of power and money. State run companies , remember how fragile it is, the whole nation is full of injustice environmental decay and poverty, but the state keeps the headlines full of joyous hymns while keeping business funneled seamlessly into the aristocracy.

    • 2 years ago
  • versasrev
  • thewarnerla
    • 0
      thewarnerla  
    • versasrev:

      i couldn't agree more.

      What is this WTO nonsense? Since when do they have 3 panel judges who hold court over International Business Decisions. Such Hog-wash. Its sad to know that the major news outlets will play this story like its benefiting all Americans and the nation has a whole, when really its to our demise and the elites gain.

    • 2 years ago
  • benway
  • ReganMann
more from Community:

top videos