DATE=4/11/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=HOLLYWOOD / CHINA TRADE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-261196
BYLINE=ALISHA RYU
DATELINE=LOS ANGELES
CONTENT=
INTRO: The president of the Motion Picture
Association of America, Jack Valenti, urged the U.S.
Senate on Tuesday to quickly approve the establishment
of permanent trade ties with China. As V-O-A's Alisha
Ryu explains from our West Coast Bureau, Hollywood
believes China's potential as a market for its
products are too great to ignore.
TEXT: Industry observers say Mr. Valenti sees
permanent normal trade relations status with China as
the only way Hollywood will ever penetrate and profit
from a market of more than one-point-two billion
people. Without permanent trade status, the Chinese
government may not have the incentive to open its
doors further to American entertainment.
Washington bureau chief for the Hollywood Reporter
trade magazine, Brooks Boliek (pronounced bo'-lick),
says that uncertainty is spurring Mr. Valenti and the
film industry to fight for a quick passage of
permanent trade relations.
/// FIRST BOLIEK ACT ///
As good as the box office and the secondary
market has been in this booming economy in the
United States, it is still relatively flat level
of growth whereas you look at China and that is
just a huge market. They basically see this as
a way of getting a foothold in China and the
sheer number of Chinese that are there.
/// END ACT ///
If China gains permanent trade status, one big
beneficiary could be large U.S. theater chains. Under
a tentative agreement reached in November between U.S.
and Chinese trade officials, American and other
foreign firms would be allowed to own up to 49 percent
of companies that build, own, or operate movie
theaters in China.
The Motion Picture Association of America says China
currently has only one screen per 122-thousand people,
compared with one for every 86-hundred people in the
United States.
Hollywood's tentative deal with China also includes an
increase in the annual quota of American movies
allowed to be shown in the country - from the current
limit of 10 films to 50 films over three years.
Since the quota was established in 1995, U.S. film
producers say they have averaged only eight film
showings per year in China and took in only 20 million
dollars at the box office last year. By comparison,
the U.S. box office took in a record seven-point-five
billion dollars in 1999.
Mr. Boliek at the Hollywood Reporter says there is yet
another reason Hollywood is ready to do business with
China.
/// SECOND BOLIEK ACT ///
We all know that the media is tightly controlled
in China. But it will allow American companies
to do joint ventures with China film
corporations. And the Chinese now, from what I
can tell, are at least putting forth a good-
faith effort to control piracy within the
borders of China, trying to protect copyrighted
works.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Boliek says members of Mr. Valenti's organization
who support permanent trade status include all of the
major studios including The Walt Disney Company, Sony
Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount
Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Universal
Studios, and Warner Brothers.
But they face stiff opposition from organized labor
groups and human rights activists in the United States
who want to continue the practice of reviewing China's
trade status on an annual basis. They say this would
give Washington greater flexibility to deal with China
if it violates agreements or workers' rights.
(Signed)
NEB/AR/TVM/PT
11-Apr-2000 19:30 PM EDT (11-Apr-2000 2330 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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