More trouble with China

The Associated Press is reporting that U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce Jon W. Dudas is unhappy with China’s cooperation when it comes to fighting piracy.

Washington had complained to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on piracy in China earlier this year,  accusing Beijing of not doing enough to stop the out of control copying of music, movies, software and other products there. Despite Beijing’s claims that it has come down hard on counterfeiters and piracy, producers in the electronics supply chain are claiming more and more infringements — complaints and accusations that have been echoed by many of our readers here in this blog (see “Fighting back against the grey market” and “The number one threat the distribution industry faces”).

This, of course, is one of many China matters the United States (and our readers) have expressed issue with, others including trade surplus and recalls of China-made products (see “What Mattel has to do with the electronics supply chain”), which leads one to wonder how much more strained our relationship with China will or can become. Clearly, China is a key market for the electronics supply chain, but at what cost does the opportunity come?

As always, your comments are welcomed below. See “U.S. Pans China’s Antipiracy Efforts” for the AP story (sorry, subscription required).