China is appealing the WTO ruling against China’s limitations on the importation of foreign cultural products such as movies, books, and music. From AP:
The World Trade Organization announced the appeal in a statement to its members. Chinese officials said it was filed Tuesday, but documents were not immediately made public.
The ruling last month came down decisively against Beijing’s policy of forcing American media producers to route their business through state-owned companies.
The country’s restrictions have been a key gripe of Western exporters, who complain that China’s rapid rise as a trade juggernaut has been aided by unfair policies that boost sales of Chinese goods abroad while limiting the amount of foreign products entering the Chinese market.
The WTO decision in August backed a number of complaints of trade associations representing record labels such as EMI and Sony Music Entertainment; publishers including McGraw Hill and Simon & Schuster; and, to a lesser extent, the major Hollywood studios of Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Universal and 20th Century Fox.
