Friday, January 27, 2012

Beijing objects to U.S. labelling Taobao as a “notorious market”

News this week: Last week, Beijing hit a back at U.S. trade authorities stating that the U.S. “acted irresponsibly” when they cited Taobao, an Alibaba subsidiary, as a “notorious market.”

Shen Danyan, from China’s Ministry of Commerce, stated “Since there is no conclusive evidence, there is no detailed analysis, this is very irresponsible and not objective.”

This statement was a reaction to a list released by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in mid-December. The list highlights markets used to sell pirated and counterfeited goods. The updated list did remove Baidu, the leading Chinese language search engine, but Taobao remains on the USTR list.

After the list was released in December, the Alibaba Group responded by stating that the company continued to be committed to protecting intellectual property rights.

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