Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) remains on the US government’s annual list of “notorious markets” that peddle counterfeit products.
The Office of the US Trade Representative on Thursday said that Alibaba’s online marketplace Taobao.com (淘寶) continues to sell “high volumes” of pirated goods, according to companies that say they have been victimized.
It also said that Alibaba has “ineffective” procedures for removing counterfeit products.
In a statement, Alibaba said that “we do not agree” with the trade representative’s decision.
Alibaba added that even the US report recognized its efforts to work with companies to protect intellectual property.
“We will continue to wage this fight against counterfeiters,” the company said.
The trade office also added Saudi Arabia to its yearly “priority watchlist” of countries that do not adequately protect intellectual property, citing its failure to shield pharmaceuticals from counterfeit competition, and the continued piracy of movies and television shows on the BeoutQ service.
Also on the priority list this year are Algeria, Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Canada and Colombia this year were removed from the blacklist.
Canada last year agreed to upgrade intellectual property protection as part of a renegotiated North America free-trade agreement with the US and Canada.
Colombia updated its copyright law and improved intellectual property protection.
China, including Hong Kong, continues to account for vast majority of seizes of counterfeit goods by US Customs, the trade office said.
The watchlist and notorious markets blacklist are published annually and are not directly connected to a year-long trade dispute between the US and China.
The world’s two biggest economies have slapped import taxes on US$360 billion of each other’s goods.
They are fighting over US allegations that China steals trade secrets, coerces US and other foreign firms to hand over sensitive technology and unfairly subsidizes its own tech companies in an aggressive push to supplant US technological dominance. Talks to end the dispute are scheduled to resume next week in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday vowed to abolish subsidies to firms that impede fair competition — addressing a major bone of contention in US trade talks.
Xi repeated past promises to lower tariffs, increase imports and open up more sectors of China’s economy to foreign businesses.
He also reiterated that China would not engage in competitive devaluation of its currency — another cause of US anger.
Additional reporting by AFP
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six