阿里巴巴被指將利用美國銷售稅漏洞

Alibaba is taking on Amazon’s habitual role as public enemy number one for traditional US retailers, after being dragged into a political fight over a tax exemption for online sales.

在捲入一場有關電商免稅的政治爭鬥之後，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)接手了通常由亞馬遜(Amazon)扮演的角色，成爲美國傳統零售商的頭號公敵。

Bricks-and-mortar retailers – which have spent years attacking Amazon for profiting from what they call a sales tax loophole – have turned their fire on Alibaba by launching a new advertisement warning that the Chinese ecommerce group will be the next beneficiary.

實體店零售商多年來一直攻擊亞馬遜獲利於它們所稱的銷售稅漏洞。現在它們將炮火對準了阿里巴巴，併發布新的廣告警告稱，這家中國電商集團將是下一個受益者。

A campaign group whose members include Target, Best Buy, Home Depot and JC Penney have aimed their ad at US lawmakers, claiming that Alibaba will “decimate” local retailers unless a new law can be passed to prevent online shoppers avoiding sales tax.

成員包括塔吉特(Target)、百思買(Best Buy)、家得寶(Home Depot)和JC Penney的一個遊說團體面向美國立法者投放廣告，稱阿里巴巴將“大批殺傷”當地零售商——除非通過新的法律，阻止網購者免交銷售稅。

The ad suggests that the US retailers are ready to play hardball and threatens to suck Alibaba into a political conflict before it launches an English-language version of its most popular site, Taobao.

該廣告表明，美國零售商準備採取強硬態度，可能在阿里巴巴開通其最熱門網站淘寶(Taobao)的英文版之前將其拖入一場政治衝突。

“We believe it’s just a matter of time before Alibaba exploits this loophole,” said Joshua Baca, of the Alliance for Main Street Fairness, the retail coalition behind the ad, whose members also include thousands of smaller stores.

投放這則廣告的商業街公平聯盟(Alliance for Main Street Fairness)的喬舒亞•巴卡(Joshua Baca)表示：“我們相信，阿里巴巴遲早會利用銷售稅的漏洞。”這個零售業聯盟的成員還包括數千家規模較小的商店。

Yesterday, Alibaba rejected the group’s allegations. “This advertisement is not fact-based,” it said. “The Alibaba Group pays its taxes according to the laws in the country [in which] it does business and the US is no exception. The Alibaba Group remains focused on providing US-based companies the opportunity to bring their products and services to the Chinese market through our various online properties.”

昨日，阿里巴巴否認了這個團體的指控。它表示：“這則廣告毫無事實根據。阿里巴巴集團會在業務所在國照章納稅，美國也不例外。阿里巴巴集團依然致力於爲美國企業提供中國市場的機遇，通過我們不同的網上平臺，讓他們把商品與服務介紹到中國市場。”

Amazon has escaped being a lightning rod for such attacks by supporting legislation to close the perceived tax loophole – even though other retailers say privately that Amazon’s backing seems little more than lip service.

亞馬遜支持立法堵住實體零售商眼中的銷售稅漏洞，因而沒有成爲首當其衝的攻擊對象。儘管有些零售商私下表示，亞馬遜的所謂支持似乎只是說說而已。

Ebay opposes the legislation, which it says would harm small businesses selling on its site by pushing up prices. But US retailers appear to have decided that it would be more effective to take aim at a Chinese target, rather than launch attacks on the Silicon Valley-based ecommerce site.

Ebay反對立法，認爲這會傷害到在其網站上銷售的小商家，迫使他們提高價格。但美國零售商似乎認爲，將目標對準一家中國企業、而不是總部位於硅谷的電商網站，或許會更爲有效。

Alibaba, which raised $25bn in the world’s largest ever flotation earlier this year in New York, has made a string of investments in US technology companies. In June, it launched 11 Main, a US business-to-consumer marketplace similar to its China-based Tmall, which offers online storefronts to merchants.

今年早些時候，阿里巴巴在紐約上市籌得250億美元資金，爲全球規模最大的IPO。阿里巴巴還對美國科技公司進行了一系列投資。今年6月，阿里巴巴推出了11 Main，這是一個立足美國的企業對個人(B2C)市場平臺，類似於其在中國爲商家提供網店平臺的天貓(Tmall)。

Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, said last month that it would set up an international version of Taobao, its consumer-to-consumer marketplace.

阿里巴巴創始人馬雲(Jack Ma)上月表示，該公司將創建一個國際版淘寶——淘寶是阿里巴巴提供的消費者對消費者(C2C)平臺。