China may appeal WTO ruling on media controls
August 14, 2009
By Chris Buckley
Beijing - China defended its controls on imported films and books yesterday when it said it might appeal a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling against its import restrictions.
On Wednesday the WTO panel said China's import and distribution regime for books and films broke international trade rules, as well as the terms of China's entry to the WTO in 2001, and should be revised.
The Ministry of Commerce said China "felt regret" the WTO upheld a US complaint about its import monopolies, which Washington says hurt publishers, Hollywood and entertainment multinationals.
"China will conscientiously assess the ruling report of the expert panel and does not exclude the possibility of appealing," the ministry said. "The channels for foreign publications, films and audio-visual products entering the Chinese market are extremely open."
China's ruling Communist Party maintains a sprawling apparatus of propaganda and censorship. While Chinese mass media have grown more commercial, the state keeps a wary, if sometimes unsteady, grip.
The WTO disputes panel said China could not use its censorship goals to justify trade barriers that violated WTO rules, US officials said.
"That's not going to go down at all well in these precincts," David Wolf, a Beijing-based consultant for media and communications companies, said of the WTO ruling. "China has always been adamant that trade in goods with cultural or political significance should be treated differently."
Whatever emerged from the WTO process, Beijing was unlikely to really ease its controls on products it feared could corrode the party's controls on culture, said Wolf. "Here there's considerable wiggle room to ostensibly open the market while applying restrictions."
If China appeals against the ruling, it will add to trade disputes pitting it against the US.
US President Barack Obama must decide by September 17 whether to limit imports of car and light truck tyres from China in a case that could cause a flood of requests from other industries if given the nod.
The US trade deficit with China totalled $103 billion (R837bn) in the first half of this year, down 13 percent from last year but still a source of tension between the two.
China is also increasingly assertive in pressing trade complaints at the trade body.
The WTO ruling did not reject the import quota of 20 foreign films a year that goes through China Film, a state company, and it accepted China's right to keep out foreign films and publications if it found them objectionable.
But a US official said "China Film can no longer be the monopoly importer", which would create other possible film import channels into China.
"The US film industry won a major victory in its years-long battle to open the Chinese movie market today," Dan Glickman, the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The case, dating to 2007, also involved products such as books, newspapers, CDs, DVDs, video games and music download services.
The panel findings called on China to allow US companies to partner with Chinese enterprises to distribute sound recordings over the internet.
The WTO ruling could also potentially affect how foreign video game companies operate in China.
Either side can appeal the ruling within 60 days and the case would be heard by a higher appellate body, which can uphold or reverse all or part of the ruling. - Reuters
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