The United States and China should cooperate more in fighting against crimes in the field of intellectual property rights (IPR), said Carol Hallett, the former commissioner of the U.S. Customs.

Hallett, who is also a member on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, made the remark while attending a Sino-American forum on IPR held on Tuesday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

At the annual session of the Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) held in Beijing on Monday, Chinese and US trade officials wrapped up their day-long negotiation with consensus on IPR protection.The two sides agreed to set up cooperation mechanisms on cross border prosecutions for IPR violations and on the protection of movie copy rights.

Jeremie Waterman, director of Asia with the US Chamber of Commerce, said the consensus proved the United States and China could continue cooperation in fighting against cases of IPR infringements on a new horizon.

Waterman admitted China had made new progress toward IPR protection and fighting against crimes in association with this aspect.

China has handled 24,189 cases of trademark infringements and seized more than 150 million pieces of pirated audio-video products since last September. In addition, China has also destroyed 24 illegal compact disk production lines and shut down 2,960 illegal printing workshops, sources from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said.

However, earlier this year, the United States insisted on including China on its "priority watch list" of countries "failing to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights" and threatened to take possible legal action against China within the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in May worked out an action plan, entitled "Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy",urging China to take effective measures, step up law enforcing efforts in protecting IPR, and improve transparency in this regard in the forthcoming six months, and the action plan has been submitted to the Chinese government, said Waterman.

Source: Xinhua