Claiming that the Chinese market is the main source of counterfeit goods, the United States has upgraded its trade protection against Chinese products.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative issued the Notorious Markets List 2013 on Feb. 13, 2014, ranking China as the biggest market for counterfeit goods. However the report, lacking any authoritative survey and ignoring China’s anti-counterfeit campaigns, has all the hallmarks of trade protectionism.

The Chinese government has made remarkable efforts in recent years to crack down on counterfeit goods. In 2013 55,180 counterfeit cases involving 172.9 billion yuan (about 285.1 billion USD) were prosecuted and 1,260 regional crime sources and supply and marketing networks in different fields were cracked by the Ministry of Public Security. Along with the judicial departments, another 9 administrative and law-enforcement departments have also taken part in the anti-counterfeit campaigns.

In fact the United States, while claiming to be an advocate of free trade, has repeatedly adopted double standards against China on trade issues. The U.S. has already launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations against 11 Chinese products in the first two months of 2014. The U.S. Congress recently passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014. With its discriminatory clauses against Chinese enterprises, it not only violates the basic doctrines of fair trade, but will also be harmful to the interests of American enterprises.

Wang Jian, head of the International Business Research Centre of the University of International Business and Economics, said there are two reasons. Firstly, the U.S. has a tendency to be trade protectionist because its domestic manufacturing industry is still recovering from the latest financial crisis. Moreover, China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue is hopefully to open in the first half of 2014. The U.S. plans to force China to make more concessions on market opening and appreciation of the yuan by provoking trade issues.

To face America’s trade war, Bai Ming, Deputy Director of the International Market Research Department of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, suggested that we accelerate the transformation of trade growth by enhancing the brand, service and quality of our products, along with their non-price competitiveness. We should actively respond to these investigations and initiate counters to protect the security of our industry and enterprises' legitimate interests. In addition, foreign trade needs to be transformed from mere export to a combination of export and local employment.


The article is edited and translated from《美诬中国“假货第一”是放烟雾》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, author: Zhou Xiaoyuan.