The U.S., China, and the WTO

The U.S., China, and the WTO have gotten themselves in a three-way dance over China's policy against piracy. The U.S have formally complained to the WTO stating that China is a) not doing enough to curb piracy while b) simultaneously putting too many restrictions on U.S. imports (which can only encourage piracy).

Over at Techdirt, they explore problem b a little more in depth. In a Wall Street Journal article graph, both China and France, two countries who have the strongest import restriction on film, are shown to be the two places where the MPAA is loosing the most revenue. The claim is that the U.S. government should be arguing more for a lift of import restrictions rather than stricter piracy rules.

The U.S. government seems to arguing for both to me, although I agree with the TechDirt author that focusing on less-restrictive trade would be a better avenue of pursuit. U.S. priorities seem to be a little backwards in this case .