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Canada to decide soon on China piracy action
2006-11-04
Canada will decide shortly whether to take legal action at the World Trade Organization to force China to clamp down on piracy of CDs, DVDs and fake brand products, Trade Minister David Emerson said on Thursday. "We are reviewing that issue virtually as we speak," Emerson told reporters. The United States has delayed plans to take any WTO action against China on the issue of intellectual property rights but if it does go ahead, it expects to be joined by Canada and Japan, a U.S. official said earlier this week. "Whether we will join in the WTO challenge is a decision we'll make shortly," Emerson said. But the minister said Ottawa itself is under pressure from the United States to reduce its own piracy problem. "We do have intellectual property concerns with China, we've made no secret of that. On the other hand, the United States has concerns about ours and so it's an area where we're going to have to be doing some work here in Canada," Emerson said. Canada, the United States and Japan complain of billion-dollar losses in sales of music, movies and other goods as a result of widespread illegally copying in China, which they say contravenes WTO rules.
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