US complaints to the World Trade Organization over alleged commercial piracy in China could hurt relations on trade issues, the top envoy on trade with Washington warned yesterday.

"It will seriously undermine bilateral cooperation on intellectual property rights (IPR) under the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade framework, and damage the existing cooperative ties on market access for publications," Vice-Premier Wu Yi said at the China High-level Forum on IPR Protection 2007.

"It is the first time aWTOmember has lodged two complaints simultaneously against another member and it will have a very negative impact."

She added that the Chinese government will proactively respond to the US move in line with WTO rules and "see it through to the end".

This has beenBeijing's strongest response since Washington launched two complaints in early April at the WTO claiming that China was not doing enough to punish illegal copiers of films and music, and that its restrictions on entertainment imports violated trade rules.

In seven special crackdowns on IPR infringements last year police filed 863 cases and arrested 988 suspects, while the courts handled 6,441 IPR cases.