SHANGHAI (AFP) – Ivanka Trump was granted five business trademarks in China earlier in May, just days before her father suddenly scrapped a US technology ban imposed on Chinese telecom firm ZTE, according to government documents.
The trademark approvals were dated May 7, a week before President Donald Trump extended an olive branch on ZTE in his trade tussle with China.
Chinese government documents revealing the trademarks were first publicised by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The US watchdog said the approvals, and other Trump family business connections to China, “raised potential ethics issues”.
An additional trademark received “first trial” approval on May 6, according to CREW.
The applications had been submitted in March 2017 and give Ivanka’s company trademark rights on goods including bath mats, textiles and baby blankets, CREW said.
Ivanka Trump serves as an adviser to her father yet still profits from her various branded products, of which China is a major supplier.
Her company, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC, already holds more than a dozen trademarks in China and has multiple applications pending, CREW said.
Trump administration officials last month proposed a ban on sales of crucial American technology to ZTE, a giant Chinese telecom company that employs 80,000 people.
