The European Commission has released a report which found that in 2007 EU customs registered more than 43,000 cases of fake goods seized at the EU’s external border, compared to 37,000 in 2006. Although China remained the main source of counterfeit goods in general, accounting for almost 60 percent of seizures, EU Taxation and Customs Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs told journalists, “I am happy with the progress recently made with China to strengthen international cooperation with the aim of stopping this problem at its source.” “The EU-China Summit in November will finalise an EUChina customs cooperation agreement,” he added.
In the case of fake medicines, there was an element of surprise with Switzerland topping the list of exporting countries, followed by India and the United Arab Emirates (respectively 40, 35 and 15 percent of the total amount seized by EU countries). Kovacs initially assumed Switzerland was being used as a transit stop for the huge consignments of fake medicines but it turned out they originated there, though “certainly not from one of the giants of the pharmaceutical industry”. Kovacs said he hoped it would be one single case and not repeated again.
The Commissioner discounted the notion that fake medicines are being produced in legal factories in India adding: “India has got a developed pharmaceutical industry, but probably it did not produce these fake medicines, because most of them are not produced in legal factories of the pharmaceutical industry in India.”
Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia are probably used as a transit stop, often with the purpose of hiding the real origin of the goods, the report suggested. The number of fake articles seized in the EU decreased from 128 million articles in 2006 to around 79 million in 2007. This is due to a growing number of seizures involving smaller quantities of counterfeit and pirated articles. Cigarettes and clothing continue to be faked in large quantities, said the report.
In the category “foodstuff and beverages”, Turkey was the main source followed by China; for the category “cosmetics and personal care products,” Georgia followed by Turkey and China were the main sources. Medicines for erectile dysfunction (Viagra) continue to be the most popular counterfeited medicines. However, other serious medicines such as anti-cholesterol, anti-osteoporosis or medicines to control hypertension are also found as counterfeit medicines, noted the EU report. Commending the industry for cooperation with more than 10,000 applications (7,000 in 2006) filled in by the industry to request customs actions in cases where there is a suspicion that products are being counterfeited, the Commissioner said: “One of my priority objectives remains to achieve progress in this field.
“Therefore, I welcome the close cooperation between industry and customs to stop suspicious shipments of counterfeited goods at the border before they disappear in the internal market. Due to technical improvements and the use of more sophisticated ways in producing counterfeit goods, input from industry to detect them is vital for the customs.” According to the report, this cooperation resulted in 80 percent of the customs interventions in 2007. Warning that “counterfeiting continues to pose a dangerous threat to our health, safety and our economy,” Commissioner Kovacs said: “The Commission will issue some guidelines before the end of the year to improve this cooperation.