Trade Fight With China Will Go On

WASHINGTON —  The United States and China averted a trade war over copyright protection Monday, but analysts say the fight against Chinese counterfeiters is far from over and that Washington could use more help from its allies.

Trade analysts said Washington will have to keep up the pressure on Beijing to enforce the accord and that future confrontations are likely over piracy of copyrights, trademarks and patents.

“The reality is that enforcement is going to be a long struggle,” said Greg Mastel, an expert on China trade at the Economic Strategy Institute. “It is naive to think that this problem is over.”

Monday’s last-minute agreement in Beijing to stop Chinese piracy of U.S. films, recorded music and computer software included the closing of pirate plants and investigation of other plants for illegal activity.

It also calls on China to stop licensing new plants, to close underground plants and open markets for U.S. recordings, motion pictures and computer software, U.S. officials said.

“These are significant steps,” said White House economic policy advisor Laura D’Andrea Tyson. “This is real progress, but the enforcement of intellectual property rights, not just in China but around the world, is a long-term process.”

The latest battle over copyright piracy stems from what the United States said was a lack of enforcement of a February 1995 agreement in which Beijing promised to crack down on counterfeiting operations and to open its markets.

Washington announced last month that it would impose 100% tariffs on $2 billion of Chinese imports on Monday if Beijing failed to enforce the year-old accord. China threatened to retaliate with similar sanctions against U.S. goods.

“It sends a very strong message that the United States is not simply seeking paper agreements,” David Rothkopf, a managing director at Kissinger Associates and a former undersecretary of commerce, said of the latest confrontation.

But he and other trade analysts said they believe that in the long run, the U.S. will have to work more closely with Europe and Japan on China trade issues. “It is going to be very important in the future to work much harder on multilateral solutions,” Rothkopf said. “It sends a much stronger message.”

U.S. officials have often complained of a lack of support on China trade issues from allies who reap the benefits of any agreement and gobble up contracts if deals between the U.S. and China go sour.

Kenneth DeWoskin, a China expert at the University of Michigan, said the United States should help the Chinese understand that intellectual property protection is in their own long-term interest.

DeWoskin said China is looking to establish its own software and music industries as well as domestic brand-name consumer products but that businesses cannot make money because successful products are widely pirated.

* NO TRADE WAR

U.S. calls off sanctions. A1

* POLITICAL MOVE

China aiding Clinton? A6