In his Tuesday remarks at the National Press Club, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk revealed that though the country is assessing its possibilities of legally challenging the Internet restrictions imposed by China, direct talks with the authorities may bring about faster results.

With a case challenging China’s censorship practices, which affect Google and other Internet providers operating in China, probably will be the first-ever of the kind at the WTO, Kirk said that the US trade officials are trying to determine “whether the best resolution is to go forward and file an appeal.”

Saying that the US trade officials want to ensure that they fully understand the situation, and the way in which China’s Web censorship policy is affecting Internet providers, Kirk added that the officials are currently in talks with a few Internet providers including Google.

Kirk also noted that Google and China are already involved in “very intense negotiations” over the censorship issue ever since Google’s threats of withdrawing from China after recent cyberattacks.

Furthermore, saying that the US free speech group ‘First Amendment Coalition’ had been long urging a case against China’s censorship policy, Kirk added that resolving the matter through bilateral forums like the U. S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) was “much more preferable than the uncertain path of what can be a two-, three-, four-year legal battle in the WTO.”