[JURIST] Chinese officials Tuesday criticized US plans to file a case [JURIST report] against China [JURIST news archive] at the World Trade Organization (WTO) [official website; JURIST news archive] for lax enforcement of copyright violations and trademarks. Wang Xinpei, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce [official website], released a statement [text] Tuesday expressing the country's "strong dissatisfaction" to the US decision and warned that the case would "seriously undermine the cooperative relations the two nations have established in the field and will adversely affect bilateral economic and trade ties."

Tian Lipu [official profile], commissioner of the Chinese Intellectual Property Office, also criticized the US decision, saying it is "not sensible," and does not take into account China's continued efforts to enforce copyright and anti-counterfeiting laws. US Trade Representative Susan Schwab [official profile] said the US is not opposed to negotiating a settlement with China outside the WTO process, but noted that such an agreement could take 18 months to reach while US workers are losing billions of dollars annually due to current practices in China. Reuters has more.