Violations of intellectual property rights, trademarks and patents held by European Union companies and researchers will be high on the agenda when European Commission President Manuel Barroso leads a delegation to Beijing for two days of economic and trade talks. The European Commission estimates that pirated goods made in China cost EU companies $33.3 billion in lost trade annually, about a third of the current volume of EU exports to China. Unlike the United States, the EU has not pursued any Chinese piracy cases in the World Trade Organization. The EU, however, has put China in the category of worst violators of intellectual property. China is the only country in that category because its anti-piracy efforts are so weak that 80 percent of counterfeit goods imported into the 27-nation bloc are made in China, according to the Associated Press. Barroso will lead a delegation of nine E.U. commissioners -- one-third of the EU executive -- including EU trade chief Peter Mandelson. "A more flexible currency regime is essential for a rebalancing of the Chinese economy, allowing for a more rapid appreciation of the Chinese currency," Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, head of business lobby BusinessEurope, told the press before the delegation left for China. Seilliere also urged Barroso to enroll China in a global climate change deal, becausethe country is overtaking the U.S. as the world's biggest polluter.
Journal of Commerce
