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- <text id=91TT2734>
- <title>
- Dec. 09, 1991: Business Notes:Trade
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Dec. 09, 1991 One Nation, Under God
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 59
- Business Notes
- TRADE
- Hands Off Our Thoughts!
- </hdr><body>
- <p> What the bloody massacre in Beijing's Tiananmen Square failed
- to provoke may now come to pass because of an argument about...Mickey Mouse. Though the Bush Administration declined to punish
- China for the 1989 crackdown, it announced plans last week to
- unleash retaliatory tariffs worth up to $1.5 billion on Chinese
- exports. The reason: disregard by the Chinese for U.S. patents
- and copyrights covering books, audio and video recordings,
- computer software and such quintessentially American creations as
- Walt Disney's favorite rodent. The Chinese rarely pay for the use
- of such "intellectual property," resulting in serious losses to
- U.S. businesses.
- </p>
- <p> American officials view China's six-month-old copyright law
- as weak and have been pushing for tougher compliance in talks
- that went nowhere. With Congress apparently bent on enacting its
- own restrictions, the Administration will now move to recoup
- losses from Beijing's intellectual poaching by imposing tariffs
- on such Chinese goods as beer, watches and athletic shoes.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-