The United States Trade Representative yesterday, while acknowledging that Alibaba has made efforts to cut down on the sale of counterfeit goods through Taobao, its huge online marketplace, nevertheless added the site to its list of world’s worst offenders. The announcement represents a setback for Alibaba, which publicly protested the decision. Michael Evans, the president of Alibaba, said the decision “leads us to question whether the U.S.T.R. acted based on the actual facts or was influenced by the current political climate.”