US copyright complaint against China breaches consensus: China
BEIJING - China said Wednesday a WTO complaint lodged by the United States against it for alleged copyright abuse was inconsistent with a consensus between the two countries.

"The US move... is inconsistent with the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries to promote bilateral trade relations and to settle trade disputes appropriately," ministry spokesman Wang Xinpei told reporters.

"It will seriously damage the cooperation (on intellectual property rights protection) that the two parties have built up," he said.

He was not referring to a specific agreement reached between China and the United States, but rather a general agreement about the spirit in which the two sides were addressing disputes.

The United States formally filed a complaint on copyright violations in China to the World Trade Organization on Tuesday as trade officials claimed piracy and counterfeiting levels remained "unacceptably high" in China.

It also lodged a separate case at the Geneva-based trade body on the same day accusing China of restricting the distribution of foreign music, films and books, further sharpening tensions with the booming Asian giant.

However, Wang said China has undertaken serious steps to combat copyright abuse, including an action plan for this year's campaign that adopts more than 280 measures.

"Trade frictions should be solved through friendly consultations and the parties should respect each others' different development stages," he said.

"We can choose the ways of settling trade frictions even though they are unavoidable."