April 11, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1427

WASHINGTON, April 10: US President George W. Bush said on Monday he would press his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao for currency flexibility and a crackdown on copyright theft during upcoming talks.

Bush’s remarks at Johns Hopkins University here came as the two countries prepared to hold annual trade talks on Tuesday that are set to be dominated by disputes over intellectual property rights (IPR) and market access.

On the eve of the meeting in Washington, US officials welcomed news that China has ordered the makers of all domestically made and imported computers to install legitimate software.

The president, however, noted that the US trade deficit with China last year surged to a record-breaking $202 billion “and a lot of Americans are wondering where’s the equity in trade”.

“And therefore, I think he could help the Americans understand the importance of a free-trading world if he were to maybe make a statement on his currency, for example,” Bush said ahead of Mr Hu’s April 18-22 visit.

“It’s very important for him to make a declaration on (intellectual) property rights, IPR,” he added.

“It’s difficult for a nation that likes to trade, like ours, to go into a country uncertain as to whether or not patents will be protected or product will be protected from (being copied).”

The US deficit would be less if China stopped artificially skewing the value of its currency to prop up its exports, and opened up its protected markets more, Washington argues.

After Mr Hu heads home, the US Treasury is set to issue a twice-yearly report on global currency policies that many in Congress argue should label Beijing a currency “manipulator”, potentially opening up the way to trade sanctions.

A senior administration official said he expected further announcements from China to placate US trade concerns ahead of Mr Hu’s meeting with Mr Bush.

“There’s a range of IPR steps on which the Chinese are moving. We would look at that decision on pre-loading legal software as probably the most significant,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

China’s Xinhua news agency said the administrative order requires software providers to give computer producers favourable prices and services to support the pre-installation of legal programs.

US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez last month singled out software piracy in China as amounting to “nothing short of criminal activity”.—AFP