BEIJING, Nov 26: EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson expressed frustration on Monday with copyright violations in China, hinting Europe might refer it to the WTO.

Mandelson told an EU-China seminar Europe was running out of patience over Beijing’s failure to deliver concrete results on IPR protection.

“The EU so far has held back on taking China to the WTO, but it is hard to see for how much longer,” Mandelson said.

“I urge the Chinese government to ensure a proper balance is restored.

Europe has so far held back from testing China’s practice on intellectual property protection in the WTO — preferring to prioritise dialogue and cooperation instead,” Mandelson said.

“But the sincerity of our approach, I must say, is being tested and I regret it is hard to see how much longer our patience can last if treatment is not improved,” he warned.

Mandelson said Chinese authorities had made some progress in tackling the problem, but that more should be done.

He said European business confidence in China had fallen, with EU manufacturers last year estimating that piracy cost them one dollar for every five that they made in China.

“We have accepted that IPR is indeed a complex issue, and China’s commercial culture and legal system need time to absorb change. We have been constructive and we have been patient, but the return we have received on that patience has frankly been too low,” Mandelson said.

“We have yet to see the concrete results that we expected from the new priority that has been given to IPR by the Chinese authorities. The world is changing too fast to wait longer,” he added.—AFP