US continues to blacklist China’s Taobao due to counterfeit goods trade

Beijing. January 17. Silkroadnews - The U.S. government report states the online trading platform has not taken sufficient measures to combat the counterfeits sale, the information portal Engadget reported.
“Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba’s counterfeit goods problem refuses to go away. Despite noting improvements on takedown efforts, the Office of the US Trade Representative has again blacklisted Alibaba's eBay-like Taobao shopping site,” the report said.
In its annual report on trade in illicit goods in virtual and physical markets, the USTR stated that Taobao hasn’t “objectively demonstrated that the volume or prevalence of counterfeit goods has decreased over the last year.”
Alibaba presented its copyright protection and cooperation programs with law enforcement agencies as evidence that measures were taken to address the issue the USTR raised.
“The number of takedown requests declined by 25% YoY as a direct result of our ability to remove infringing listings before they make it to our marketplaces,” the agency quoted saying by Alibaba group president Michael Evans.
He added: “In fact, 98% of these proactive takedowns were removed before a single sale could be made, and 97% of all takedown requests were handled within 24 hours.”
According to the USTR, imports of counterfeit and pirated goods are about a half trillion dollars a year, or about 2.5% of the world’s imports.