Interview: Motion Picture Association of America---Glickman, Dan---Chief Executive Officer
>> as hu jintao comes to washington, china has made several trade concessions, including a promise to crack down on software and music piracy. according to the motion picture association of america, the movie industry worldwide loses an estimated $3 to $4 billion annually at the hands of pirates. earlier, i asked daniel glickman, former congressman, now chairman of the mpaa, if the chinese promises are enough.
>> we’ve heard the promises many times before that they will stop piracy, particularly street piracy. it’s never been a company to by the deeds to actually get it done. there are some that are doing a better job than others at getting rid of street piracy but by and large there has not been a profound change in the way the chinese government deals with piracy. it’s still everywhere in china.
>> the chinese last week also said that piracy is not a big reason for the chinese-u.s. trade gap. do you disagree?
>> certainly the whole intellectual property subject is a big reason. and that is is that whether it’s movies, music, business software, pharmaceuticals, manufactured items, i mean, there is a great and growing problem of our products being copied over there and us not being compensated for them. and that is having a real economic effect on a variety of u.s. industries, not only movies and music, but the others i mentioned.
>> what, then, should be done by the u.s. government? time to get tough, time to go to the world trade organization, seek sanctions, that sort of thing?
>> china is now a member of the world trade organization, which means it has to abide by the rules that we do and every other country does. so we are exploring our options, as is the u.s. government to litigate some of our concerns about intellectual property enforcement. but at the same time, we hope the chinese step up to the plate and do what needs to be done in terms of getting rid of the pirated material, and in our case, also allowing more american movies into china. the fact is that not very many american movies are allowed into china legally but almost everything that’s produced here is on the streets of china in a pirated version. and we’d like to see that stopped.
>> bloomberg has been told the u.s. is preparing to file a lawsuit with the w.t.o. are you part of that?
>> certainly we have been helping provide the data and information to the government. i mean, the government will actually file, if it decides to do so, file this action. but they would have our support if they decided to go ahead and do this.
>> the argument you also hear these days is that china’s becoming a country with more intellectual property of its own and it has its own reasons to crack down. are the chinese telling you they have their own self-motivation?
>> yes, actually most government officials in china will tell you that intellectual property is a problem. it’s not that they would say it’s not a problem. they just say that they’re handling. it. and it’s taken them a lot of years to get to the point where they’re kind of privatizing and they don’t have quite the experience in private property rights generally. they also talk about the fact that they have their own movie and music industry and those people need protected, as well. one of the growing allies we have on these issues is in fact directors and writers and creators of chinese movies and music. they themselves see they’re in great jeopardy with piracy.
>> with 30 seconds left, when might we see a change? when are you expecting to see the piracy figures go down?
>> we keep hitting them over the head, so to speak, to do what’s right. i’d say this, watch the olympics in 2008. there will be millions of people watching and visiting china and china wants to be viewed as a great and powerful nation, which it is. but the olympics gives a chance to show the world that they intend to follow the rule of law. but if we don’t see any positive action between now and then, my presumption is is that we’ll take other steps.
>> dan glickman, chairman of the motion picture association of america. when we return, washington’s other big story this week, the ongoing shakeup of president bush’s staff. “money & politics” returns in a moment.
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Listen Money & Politics --- Mike (fast)
President Hu's vist --- Lizzie (slow)
Interview: Commerce Secretary---Gutierrez, Carlos---Politician / Govt Official
i’m michael mckee, welcome to “money & politics.” china, american business can’t live with it and can’t live without it. a currency that some say is 40% undervalued gives the chinese an unfair trade advantage over u.s. companies, helping produce a $202 billion trade deficit with china last year. at the same time, some 50,000 american companies now have operations in china and low-cost chinese goods have helped keep inflation low, stretching your purchasing power and raising america’s standard of living. this week, chinese president hu jintao is on a four-day trip to the u.s. highlighting the conflicts and cooperation between the two countries, their companies and government officials. he meets with president bush in washington tomorrow. today, we will preview that summit. first, lizzie o’leary reports on president hu’s first two days in the states.
>> president hu’s stopover in seattle mixed political ceremony with a focus on the mutual benefits of trade between the two countries.
>> by doing business with china, u.s. companies have made good profit and global competitiveness and strengthened their position in the u.s. market .
>> hu also said trade disputes should not be politicides and suggested china is hearing calls to allow its currency to float more freely.
>> our goal is to maintain the exchange rate basically stable at a adaptive and equilibrium level. the first interest of china, the interest of the united states and common interests of all countries in asia and the world at large.
>> visiting a boeing plant, he also touted china’s recent agreement to buy 80 boeing 737’s. yesterday, president hu toured microsoft with its chairman, bill gates, and declared himself a friend of the company. he also promised to clamp down on software piracy. there were also a few light moments to the visit. bill gates told president hu that if he ever needed advice on how to use windows, he’d be glad to help. lizzie o’leary, bloomberg news.
>> following his visit to washington state, hu boarded a boeing to fly to washington, d.c. where tomorrow he’ll hold a summit meeting with president bush. peter cook joins me with more on the agenda and the outlook for the visit. peter, what is at the top of their list of things to discuss?
>> trade and economic issues, mike, certainly at the top of the list. this is how it will play out tomorrow. president hu jintao will arrive at the white house about 9:30 and there will be a formal military greeting, a 21-gun salute. we are told there will be opening comments from both leaders at that time and then they will head into the bhis and start working on business. the first issues to come up in an oval office meeting will be security issues and we can expect they will discuss, among other things, the situation with the iranian nuclear program, perhaps also north korea, again, international, global hot spots of interest to both countries will be the main topics on the agenda there. then they’ll move into the cabinet room and focus on economic and trade issues. that is where we expect most likely the subjects of currency, also trade between the two countries as well as international intellectual property rights, those are all issues that should come up during the course of those meetings between the two leaders and others. they’ll have a brief lunch and a blue grass concert for the chinese leader before he heads over to blare house.
>> are we expecting any announcement on currency? hu’s suggesting today, no.
>> what we heard today from president hu may be all we get. it remains to be seen if he has additional comments. there will not be a press conference setting tomorrow for him to make additional comments. he will speak in the evening at an event in washington. but the comments we heard today, essentially that china looking to keep the yuan basically stable may be the extent of the comments we hear on that topic.
>> peter cook, thank you. since the two presidents will spend only a few hours actually together, much of the work of the summit has been done in advance. last week, a meeting of trade and commerce officials from both countries produced chinese promises to lift its ban on u.s. beef imports, open up its mobile phone and medical devices market and crack down on software and music piracy. earlier, i asked commerce secretary carlos guiterrez if those are enough to ensure a successful meeting.
>> we made some good progress and we achieved some very important commitments, as you were mentioning, the reopening of the chinese market to beef. we now have to do the technical protocols which is just sort of standard. but it’s important that they agreed to reopen their market . i think the agreement on software is very significant, that they’ve―they’re requiring, now, for companies to have preinstalled operating systems in all p.c.’s. and given that this is a market where, as you know, we’ve been worried about pirated software, that’s a very significant step forward. they also made some other commitments on i.p.r., closing down facilities. so it’s important progress, it’s not everything weed like. we’re not there yet, we still have a lot of work to do. but it’s very important progress and the key thing now will be implementation, that they actually come through with the execution and with the results.
>> are they giving you reason to believe that they will?
>> well, i think one of the important aspects of their intellectual property rights plan is that it is a plan that was developed in china by chinese officials. so they feel ownership for it. it’s their plan. they’ve developed an organization around it. and that would tell me that there’s a strong likelihood that they’ll want to implement their plan because they feel ownership for it and it’s something that has ownership at the very high levels of the chinese government starting with president hu and vice premier wu yi. but as i mentioned before, the results will ultimately tell the story and that’s what we’ll be looking for.
>> we’ve talked to a number of business people who still want the u.s. government to take the chinese to trade court at the world trade organization over a whole host of issues. we have filed some complaints. do you think that getting tougher has had an effect?
>> we have a series of options and we always have options we can put in place. one of those options is the w.t.o. case. as you know, we announced one not long ago for auto parts. and we will always look at what options we have to do what is best for american workers and american companies and continue to drive market access in china. we just want the same access that they have to our market , and to continue to demand that our intellectual property gets full protection in china. that will always be what we’re focused on. that will be our goal and we’ll use any option that is available to us to achieve that goal.
>> the president and president hu have a long list of topics to discuss at the white house tomorrow. do you think that what you got last week in terms of concessions and agreements is what we’re going to see out of this? or might there be some other announcement from the chinese tomorrow?
>> well, i don’t want to preempt or preclude anything that is the two presidents will talk about. we have last week’s jcct, those are commitments that have been made. whether there are other commitments made during this visit, we’ll see. the president, president hu has a series of speeches he will make. he has a full day of meetings with president bush. the other thing i wouldn’t overlook, as well, is the importance of the relationship between the two presidents and the fact that this is also another opportunity to build a relationship between the two leaders. but we’ll see. we’ll see what the outcome of the meetings are. and we’ll all be watching.
>> how would you describe the relationship between the two countries now? you went to china last year and said we’re going to have to get tougher on you. are we getting closer? or are we getting farther apart, two business partners, how would you describe it?
>> i would say the relationship has matured, it has evolved. if you think about where we were five, six years ago, we were trying to get china into the world community, getting them into a rules-based system like the w.t.o. today we feel we are at a stage of maturity and a stage where what we have is a very candid relationship, very honest. when things aren’t going right, we are able to talk about it and talk about solutions and be very open and mature about it. so the relationship has evolved. and i think that’s a very important aspect, as well.
>> commerce secretary carlos guiterrez. ahead of hu’s arrival, another major story in washington today, the latest in a series of personnel changes orchestrated by president bush’s new chief of staff, joshua bolten. white house press secretary scott mcclellan announced his resignation today. presidential adviser karl rove is giving up responsibility for white house policy to focus his attention on politics. more on this story later in the program. coming up next, are american companies as optimistic about china as secretary guiterez and its promises on software and movie piracy. we’ll ask dan glickman, chairman of the motion picture association of america. that interview is next on “money & politics.”
