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China is studying the US request for consultations over intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organization (WTO), said the Ministry of Commerce.

The COSCO Vancouver, owned and operated by China Ocean Shipping Company, loads container cargo at Port of Seattle's Terminal 18. (Inset) Ministry of Commerce spokesman Wang Xinpei says conflicts are unavoidable in trade relations. [Bloomberg/China Daily]

The US government filed two complaints with the WTO on Monday against China over copyright piracy and restrictions on the sale of American movies, music and books.

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China's delegation to the WTO has received the formal request from the United States, ministry spokesman Wang Xinpei said yesterday.

Under WTO rules, the two parties have up to 60 days to hold consultations. If they still fail to solve the problem, the appealing side could request a WTO panel to judge the case.

Wang said the Chinese government has made massive efforts to strengthen IPR protection and made remarkable progress.

The country established a specified panel for IPR protection involving 17 ministries and government agencies.

The IPR protection action plan of 2006 covered 160 projects while that for 2007 covers 280.

"Conflicts are unavoidable in trade relations but we could choose the method to solve them," Wang said.

He said he believed the problem could be addressed through consultations and negotiations.

The US' repeated moves to refer China to the global trade body partly stems from its widening trade deficit with China. But the gap narrowed to $9.5 billion in March from $12.3 billion in February. China's total trade surplus fell nearly 40 percent in March from a year ago.

Wang attributed the decreases to the government's policies to scrap or cut export tax rebates on some products since late last year.

"It (the decrease in trade surplus last month) may also have been caused by halts in some businesses during the Spring Festival in February," he added.

The ministry is studying the statistics to find out the real reasons.

Beijing announced that it was cutting export tax rebate on 76 additional categories, including steel products, and scrap rebate on 83 categories from April 15 in a bid to curb the trade surplus. The move is expected to show results in the medium or long term.

The commerce ministry is also working on measures to facilitate imports, said Wang.