President Trump signs trade memorandum on counterfeit products

President Donald Trump puts Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and other online marketplaces on notice, signing a memorandum that aims to curb the sale of counterfeit items online.

“This is a shot across the bow to those companies. If you don’t clean it up, then the government will,” Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters, reports CNBC.

The administration will require a report within 210 days from the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce and Justice, according to the memorandum. It will analyze how widespread the problem is and how effective current responses are, while recommending potential regulatory or legislative changes to better combat the sale of fake goods.

In justifying the action, Navarro in part cited a 2018 Government Accountability Office report showing widespread issues with counterfeiting. The agency’s investigators purchased brand name products from third-party vendors on sites such as Amazon, Walmart.com, Sears, Newegg.com and eBay and found 40 percent of the goods were fake.

In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said the company “strictly prohibits the sale of counterfeit products” and welcomes “additional coordinated support from law enforcement so we can hold bad actors accountable.”

Navarro denied that the measure, which targets Amazon, was in any way connected to Trump’s oft-stated disdain for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, an outlet that has reported extensively on Trump’s overseas businesses and the Mueller probe.

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