U.S. Places China on Trade Watch

The United States said Friday that it would monitor Chinese progress against piracy of intellectual property and indicated it might file a complaint with the the World Trade Organization if the volume of violations did not decline significantly.

The U.S. trade representative’s office said it would closely follow China’s success in fighting piracy of software, movies, music and other intellectual property in the coming year.

“China must take action to address rampant piracy and counterfeiting, including increasing the number of criminal ... cases and further opening its market to legitimate copyright and other goods,” acting U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said in a statement.

The agency said it would work with U.S. industry groups and others “to further build a factual record to develop arguments ... toward utilizing World Trade Organization procedures to bring China into compliance” with its agreements on intellectual-property rights.

U.S. industry groups welcomed the agency’s announcement. These groups estimate they lost more than $2.5 billion last year from sales of illegal copies of their products in China.

The U.S. moves could show that China’s protection of intellectual property “fails to meet the standards of effective criminal enforcement,” said Eric Smith, head of the International Intellectual Property Alliance.