Why China won’t give up Kingdom of Fakes title any time soon
Earlier this year stores in Hong Kong that sell paper goods to be used as offerings to the dead were astonished to receive a letter from Italian luxury brand Gucci warning them to stop selling paper versions of its goods.“These products are offerings for the dead, not the living, so how can we be violating copyright?” said one indignant shop owner in Sheung Wan.
The story is vivid evidence of how, 15 years after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) and despite high-profile campaigns by the government, China remains the undisputed King of Fakes.
The latest report by the OECD in April this year estimated that the global value of imported fake goods in 2013 was US$461 billion, accounting for 2.5 percent of all trade, up 84 percent from US$250 billion or 1.8 percent of all trade in 2007.
http://www.ejinsight.com/20160920-why-china-won-t-give-up-kingdom-of-fakes-title-any-time-soon/
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Shenzhen customs seize more than 400 smuggled iPhones 7 and 7 Plus
Shenzhen customs seized more than 400 smuggled iPhone 7 and 7 Plus on Friday, the day the new batch of Apple products sold.
The smuggled products are estimated to be worth over 3 million yuan (450,000 USD), said the customs.
Between 18:30 to 19:00 on Friday, officers caught seven smugglers with a total 190 iPhone 7 and 7 Plus between them. They tied the products around their waists and ankles, most of them already have smuggling offences.
Suspects told customs they only earn 200-300 yuan for taking 20-30 products into China.
The iPhones will be auctioned to the public, according to Shenzhen customs. Individuals can find the information for the auction at the Shenzhen customs website and the local newspapers to apply for the auction.
http://english.cri.cn/12394/2016/09/18/2743s940572.htm
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Zimbabwe: Mutare Traders Report ‘Brisk Business’ As Police Say Smuggling Up
GOVERNMENT ban on the importation of some foreign products into the country seems to be failing as cases of smuggling continue to surge along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border with traders in Mutare reporting “brisk business”.
Local traders continue to defy government directive to buy local products as they opt to smuggle cheaper and affordable goods from Mozambique.
Government recently enacted Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 prohibiting the importation of goods such as groceries from entering the country. Only those granted a special import licence can bring in certain goods, according to the new law. Announcing the law, the minister of industry, Mike Bimha, said the move was meant to protect local industries against unfair competition from cheap imports. But many people thought the law was unfair as it forced them to abandon their businesses and buy from local shops owned by senior government officials.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201609190398.html
Lear MoreEXCLUSIVE: How British tourists buying counterfeit handbags in Dubai are funding Kim Jong-un’s nuclear missile program
British tourists have been warned against buying counterfeit luxury goods in Dubai because they could be funding North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and his nuclear missile program.
Experts say many of the fake handbags, purses and Rolex watches on sale in ‘secret shops’ in Dubai are believed to be have been counterfeited in North Korea.
The industry is worth millions of pounds and brings in desperately needed hard currency for the Pyongyang regime.
The UN Security Council has begun drawing up even tighter sanctions after North Korea conducted its fifth and biggest missile test last week.
South Korea accused Kim Jong-un of ‘maniacal recklessness’ and the North Korean ambassador to London was called to the Foreign Office to be told how seriously Britain viewed the test as a breach of the non-proliferation treaty.
HMRC nabs cigarette-smuggling driver
A man has been jailed for attempting to smuggle more than eight million cigarettes into the UK.
Stewart Grainger was arrested after HMRC caught him unloading cigarettes that were bought in Kuala Lumpur, worth £1.75m in unpaid excise duty and VAT, at an industrial unit in Ripley. When officers from Derbyshire Police raided the unit Grainger fled but he was arrested five days later. Stuart Taylor, assistant director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said, “This type of criminal activity harms the livelihoods of honest shopkeepers, but disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £2bn a year.“This shipment alone would have evaded £1.75m in revenue, much needed money that should be funding public services, not lining the pockets of a few criminals. Don’t let them profit – report it.” Grainger, a lorry driver, was found guilty of the fraudulent evasion of excise duty after an earlier trial and was sentenced to four years at Nottingham Crown Court.
http://economia.icaew.com/news/september-2016/hmrc-nabs-cigarette-smuggling-driver
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Woman brought tobacco, cocaine into federal jail: Charges
An Evergreen Park woman arrested in a South Side traffic stop this week faces charges of smuggling tobacco and cocaine into the federal jail downtown, authorities said.
Nikole Yvette Johnson, 31, was arrested about 9:50 p.m. Tuesday near 87th Street and South Chicago Avenue after police saw her commit a traffic violation and then found there was a federal warrant out for her arrest, said Officer Bari Lemmon, a police spokeswoman.
Johnson, of the 10200 block of South California Avenue in Evergreen Park, was turned over to federal authorities early Wednesday.
A grand jury had handed up an indictment against Johnson on Sept. 8 on charges she had brought tobacco “and a quantity of mixtures and substance containing cocaine” to an inmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, 71 W. Van Buren St., on Oct. 28, 2015, according to the indictment. The indictment does not name the inmate.
Average of 1 in 3 Cigarettes Sold in Ontario are Contraband
Today, the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco (NCACT) released results of a study highlighting 31% of cigarettes purchased in Ontario were illegal.
“With about 1 in 3 of all cigarettes purchased in the province being illegal, Ontario has the worst contraband tobacco problem in the country,” said Gary Grant, a 39-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service and national spokesperson for the NCACT. “This incidence has remained relatively stable now for a number of years, and is a reminder that the provincial and federal governments must take real action to address the problem.”
Contraband was highest in Northern and Southern Ontario, where illegal cigarettes represented 59% and 34% of all cigarettes purchased. About 1 in 5 cigarettes in the GTA and Eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, were illegal. The survey of 1500 adult smokers in Ontario was conducted by GFK over a 12 week period ending on July 23rd. Respondents were asked through a continuous online tracking study about their cigarette purchases over the past 7 days.
http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/average-of-1-in-3-cigarettes-sold-in-ontario-are-contraband-593561261.html
Counterfeit Parts Of Aircraft And Defense Products Could Proliferate Through 3D Printing
3D printing of aircraft and other defense parts certainly transforms the military support environment but the threat of counterfeit parts could fuel a grey market.
“The threat of counterfeit parts from easily accessible 3D printers, coupled with the endless amount of designs available on the Internet, could fuel a black market, Graham Grose, industry director at the IFS Aerospace & Defence Center of Excellence said in an interview with Defenseworld.net Wednesday.
“This has the potential to severely impact the support chain, enabling anyone with the technology to sell counterfeit parts at a discount and leave unsuspecting businesses at risk of poorly performing and dangerous parts,” Graham said.
“While 3D printing is rightly being welcomed in the A&D industry, it will also require key changes in ERP systems to control every element of the manufacturing, maintenance and support chain processes to manage the possibility of counterfeit parts entering the support chain,” he added.
Illegal tobacco problem has decreased, Nova Scotia government says
Nova Scotia convenience store owners want the provincial government to bring in tougher legislation to crack down on illegal tobacco sales.
Mike Hammoud, president of the Atlantic Convenience Stores Association, says the government is losing millions of dollars in potential tax revenue because people are buying contraband tobacco.
Illegal tobacco sales are also hurting convenience store owners’ bottom line, he said.
118,000 contraband cigarettes seized in Lakeside bust, 2 men arrested
”It causes a legitimate customer that’s buying a legal product [to] leave and go to organized crime and buy an illegal product. So we would be losing a customer ”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/convenience-stores-illegal-tobacco-1.3762236
Rampant smuggling holds back Myanmar economy
Illegal smuggling of goods across its borders has become a serious challenge to Myanmar’s effort to modernize its economy, undermining healthy growth of markets and eroding tax revenues.
Aung Moe Kyaw, chairman of International Beverages Trading, which started co-producing beer with Dutch company Heineken last year, views smuggled beer as a bigger threat than competition from domestic rivals.
The home-grown beverage giant is generally doing well, with plans to expand production facilities this year. But illegal imports from neighboring countries such as Thailand are a source of headaches.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Rampant-smuggling-holds-back-Myanmar-economy
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