Abstract: We say that a Hopf algebra H is semicocommutative if the right adjoint coaction factorizes through the tensor product of H with the center of H. For instance the commutative and the cocommutative Hopf algebras are semicocommutative. The quasitriangular Hopf algebras generalize the cocommutative Hopf algebras. In this paper we introduce and begin the study of a similar generalization for the semicocommutative ones. These algebras, which we call semiquasitriangular Hopf algebras have many of the basic properties of the quasitriangular ones. In particular, they have associated braided categories of representations in a natural way.