WASHINGTON, July 9: The US government said on Friday it would press China to open up its markets and protect intellectual property at annual trade talks in Beijing next week.

Monday’s annual meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) will be attended by US Trade Representative Rob Portman, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.

Portman and Johanns are due to head on to a meeting of about 30 World Trade Organization members in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian on Tuesday.

Portman said a top priority for the United States at the JCCT talks would be intellectual property rights (IPR), with US industry complaining about an epidemic of fake goods in China.

He credited Vice Premier Wu Yi, who will lead the Chinese delegation at Monday’s talks, with making inroads against the counterfeiters.

“But China must do more to significantly reduce infringement levels by increasing criminal prosecutions of IPR crimes, by better protecting US films, music, software and other products on the streets, in the stores and over the Internet, and by helping US small businesses secure and enforce their intellectual property rights in China,” he said in a statement.

“I view the annual JCCT meeting as an opportunity to try to remove trade barriers, further open China’s market to US exports, and level the playing field for American workers, farmers and businesses,” he added.

The US-China trade talks will take place against a backdrop of mounting concern in Washington over Chinese policies including an inflexible currency regime that US companies say unfairly boosts Chinese exports.

The US administration is under pressure from Congress to get much tougher with China over the currency issue.

Washington has already slapped quotas on several categories of Chinese textile goods, following an explosion in the imports after global limits on the trade were scrapped on January 1.—AFP