The People’s Republic of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013, has made significant contributions to global economic growth, mobilising hundreds of billions of USD in investment in infrastructure projects across 151 participating economies. This strategic endeavour aims to enhance trade routes while also extending China’s contribution to areas such as food security and cultural ties. Thousands of projects have been initiated, notably in the transport and energy sectors, often providing crucial development opportunities for recipient countries.
The BRI continues to evolve and remains a pivotal element of China’s foreign policy and economic strategy, reflecting its ambition to forge new global trade and networks. The BRI projects have brought numerous benefits to a wide range of countries, spurring economic activity and boosting trade. However, as with other trade-facilitating innovations, there is a risk that the improved infrastructure, if not accompanied by appropriate monitoring and enforcement measures, will increase the potential for misuse by criminal actors engaged in counterfeit or other types of illicit trade. It is this risk of abuse that is the main focus of this report.
This report was prepared under the auspices of the OECD Working Party on Countering Illicit Trade in collaboration with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), in the context of an OECD-EUIPO Memorandum of Understanding. The study explores how improved and expanded trade routes associated with the BRI could be diverted to facilitate trade in counterfeit goods, thereby potentially undermining efforts to promote rules-based international trade and the original objectives of the BRI projects to deliver sustainable development. It examines mechanisms previously identified in OECD-EUIPO studies, such as those detailed in in OECD/EUIPO (2018[1]). The present report analyses trade statistics in key nodes, evaluates the potential value of counterfeit trade, examines trends in the volume and composition of these goods, and maps the primary trade routes where risks are highest.