In addition, the United States requested WTO dispute settlement consultations with China concerning certain other Chinese measures that appear to be inconsistent with various WTO obligations of China. This consultation request focuses on a Chinese legal structure that denies foreign companies the right to import publications, movies, music, and videos, that severely impedes the efficient and effective distribution of publications, music and videos within China, and that disadvantages imported publications, movies and music vis-a-vis their domestic counterparts in their distribution. As the United States and China were unable to resolve this dispute in these consultations, the United States filed on October 10, 2007, a request for the establishment of a WTO panel. A WTO panel was established to examine this matter on November 27, 2007, and was composed on March 27, 2008.
Following the 1999 Special 301 review, the United States initiated dispute settlement consultations concerning the European Union's (EU) regulation on food-related geographical indications (GIs), based on concerns that the regulation was inconsistent with the EU's TRIPS Agreement obligations. These consultations resulted from the United States' long-standing complaint that the EU GI system discriminates against foreign products and persons – notably by requiring that EU trading partners adopt an "EU-style" system of GI protection – and provides insufficient protections to trademark owners. After those consultations failed to resolve the matter, on August 18, 2003, the United States requested the establishment of a panel, and panelists were appointed on February 23, 2004.
On April 20, 2005, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ("DSB") adopted a panel report ruling in favor of the United States that the EU GI regulation is inconsistent with the EU's obligations under the TRIPS Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. In the panel report adopted by the DSB, the panel agreed that the EU's GI regulation impermissibly discriminates against non-EU products and persons. The panel also agreed with the United States that Europe could not, consistent with WTO rules, deny U.S. trademark owners their rights; it found that, under the regulation, any exceptions to trademark rights for the use of registered Gis were narrow, and limited to the actual GI name as registered. The DSB recommended that the EU amend its GI regulation to come into compliance with its WTO obligations, and the EC was given until April 3, 2006 to do so. On March 31, 2006, the EC published a revised GI Regulation that is intended to comply with the DSB recommendations and rulings. There remain some concerns, however, with respect to this revised GI Regulation, which the United States has asked the EC to address, and the United States intends to continue monitoring this situation.
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