By Chris Jones - 10th November 2006
China remains by far the biggest source of counterfeit goods seized in the EU despite efforts by both Brussels and Beijing to stamp out the fakes.
EU customs chief László Kovacs said that more than 60 per cent of all counterfeit goods seized by European customs officials in 2005 originated from China.
“We are working closely with Chinese customs officials and are already seeing results,” the Hungarian commissioner stressed.
“We have begun joint controls with both European and Chinese customs officers, and the Chinese have introduced major improvements to their customs rules in an effort to stop the counterfeiters.”
Kovacs said that the most effective change made by the Chinese had been the introduction of export checks which had helped stop a lot of counterfeit goods even leaving the country.
He also said that China had become more aware of the scale of the problem following the deaths of a number of children caused by fake milk powder.
But the commissioner was careful not to criticise China, stressing the willingness of the authorities in Beijing to cooperate with their European counterparts.
His tone was notably more conciliatory than that of EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, who called Beijing’s failure to tackle counterfeiters “a ball and chain on EU competitiveness”.
More than 75 million fake articles were seized by EU officials in 2005, Kovacs said, with a worrying rise in the number of counterfeit food and drink products, to more than five million.
A similarly large – and worrying – increase in the numbers of fake pharmaceuticals was also noted, with more than 500,000 articles seized in 2005.
“This means a real increase in the risk to European consumers, given the unhygienic conditions in which these fake products are made, and the ingredients that are used,” Kovacs said.
He gave the example of a fake cardiovascular medication that had been coloured yellow with road marking paint and given a gloss using furniture polish.
But the largest category of fake goods was clothing and accessories, with more than ten million items seized.
Reductions in the number of seizures of goods such as CDs and DVDs reflected the rapid changes in modern technology, Kovacs said, with a large share of business now shifting to internet downloads.
And there was also an overall reduction in the number of articles seized per consignment, the Hungarian said, as smugglers became increasingly more sophisticated in their concealment of fake goods.
“This has increased the pressure on EU customs officials, the first line of defence in the war against smugglers,” he said.
The EU launched a new action plan on customs in November 2005, and Kovacs said that a number of concrete actions had already been taken as a result of the plan.
Customs officials from across the EU had worked together on a number of targeted raids at ports and airports, leading to a large increase in the number of goods uncovered, he said, while an anti-counterfeit taskforce had been created to improve targeted counterfeiting efforts.
A business-customs working group had also been established to exchange information about trafficking trends, the commissioner said, and efforts were underway across the EU and in other countries – notably the US and China – to ensure stronger enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Kovacs said that the public also had a major role to play in combating counterfeiting. “If there is no demand, there is no supply,” he said, warning that anyone who bought a pirated DVD or a fake watch was funding criminals who also made potentially lethal fake food and medicines.
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