Global trade in counterfeit goods is surging—now worth nearly half a trillion dollars annually—and China remains the primary source. Yet recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) draft guidelines on curbing online counterfeiting fail to name China directly, despite hosting the platforms responsible for most of the problem. Without confronting this reality, international efforts risk becoming ineffective.
Eli Clemens writes in Law360 that the OECD’s approach assumes good faith from all players, an assumption that breaks down when applied to China’s state-backed e-commerce giants. U.S. officials should push for accountability mechanisms that go beyond voluntary norms—like transparency requirements, enforcement metrics, and forensic testing—to ensure counterfeiters can’t exploit loopholes and political blind spots.
Read the op-ed.
