USTR LABELS ALIEXPRESS, WECHAT AS “NOTORIOUS” MARKETS
- The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) added AliExpress and WeChat into its “Notorious” Markets List in the 2021 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy. Chinese platforms Taobao, DHGate, Pinduoduo, and Baidu Wangpan remain on the list of 77 online and offline markets.
BIDEN PLANS $770 BILLION DEFENSE BUDGET FOR 2023
- The U.S. administration will suggest a military budget of more than $770 billion in the fiscal year starting on October 1. Insiders expect Congress will increase the proposed spending as they did last year. The U.S. military expenditure counted for 3.74 percent of its GDP in 2020, compared with 1.75 percent of China.
RUSSIA EXPELS U.S. DEPUTY AMBASSADOR
- Russia confirmed the expulsion of the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow Bart Gorman in response to the “groundless expulsion of a minister-counselor” of the Russian embassy in the U.S. Tensions over Ukraine probably won’t end if the U.S. refuses to give “legal guarantees” to exclude Ukraine from NATO permanently.
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