U.S. firms welcome business with China

U.S. firms welcome business with China

BEIJING (Reuter): Representatives from the U.S. film and music
industries expressed excitement over the prospects of greater
market access to China, but for China's film authorities it was
business as usual yesterday, a day after the two economic giants
averted a trade war.

"We'll see a very, very booming market -- Chinese as well as
foreign movies," said Michael Connors, visiting senior vice-
president for the Asia-Pacific region of the Washington-based
Motion Picture Association.

"Many people are interested in entertainment (with growing)
resources to spend," Connors said in a telephone interview.
"Business in the past was not good because of rampant piracy. But
prospects for business (now) look really good."

After talks which stretched beyond the expiry of a previously
set deadline, China bowed on Sunday to U.S. demands to throw open
its tightly controlled markets to legitimate imports and to crack
down on pirate compact disc, laser disc and CD-ROM plants.

The agreement allows U.S. music, film and computer software
companies to create joint ventures with Chinese firms to produce
and distribute legitimate copies of their products and to share
in the profits.

In return, Washington dropped an action that would have
imposed punitive 100 percent tariffs on US$1.08 billion worth of
imports from China, which had threatened tit-for-tat sanctions.

China will also create task forces nationwide to combat
intellectual property piracy and launch raids in a six-month
enforcement period from March 1 to destroy counterfeit products.

"We believe this agreement is a win-win agreement," said,
William Warwick, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in
Beijing.

Analysts said the accord would not only help stem millions of
dollars in U.S. industry losses to Chinese software pirates, but
would also help Beijing attract the investment needed to
modernize China's huge economy.

"Not only will there be American films, video, television
products, there will be American investment which is important,"
Connors said.

Officials of the state import monopoly ChinaFilm predicted
scant change.

"There won't be too big a change. It will be as usual," a
ChinaFilm official said.

"We are still waiting for word from above that the trade war
is off then we can proceed with our work," the official said when
asked when the U.S. blockbuster film True Lies would be shown at
local theaters.

China stalled the import of True Lies in the run-up to the
trade war, indefinitely postponing the dubbing of its soundtrack
into Chinese.