New York Loses $400 Million After Imposing The Nation’s Highest Cigarette Tax.
It holds the dubious honor of having the highest cigarette taxes in country, with the average pack of smokes in New York City costing as much as $10.60.It raised taxes on cigarettes to $4.35 in 2010 from $2.75. In total, cigarette taxes have increased by 190 percent since 2006.
The sharp rise has resulted in a raft of unintended consequences which are dealing a significant blow to the state’s finances, The illegal tobacco trade has a global reach with The Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), a coalition of anti-smoking groups organized by the World Health Organization to promote tobacco control globally, estimating that, “illicit trade in cigarettes represents approximately 10.7 percent of global sales, or 600 billion cigarettes annually,” and reduces government revenues by between $40 billion and $50 billion per year.
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Increase in tobacco taxes crushing business
Minnesota – Based on the two automatic tax inflators, the Department of Revenue has issued new 2016 rates under which Minnesota adult smokers will pay an astounding and near nation-leading $3.53 per pack.This is only going to make more businesses leave the state and make cigarette smuggling worse. Increasing taxes is not going to solve anything.
http://www.inforum.com/letters/3910874-letter-increase-tobacco-taxes-crushing-business
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Hicksville Man Arrested for Massive Counterfeit Scheme Involving The North Face Merchandise
Acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Hicksville retailer was arrested yesterday for a massive trademark counterfeiting scheme after an investigation by the NCDA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations discovered more than 50,000 counterfeit .It is estimated that the merchandise seized during the search warrant has a street value in excess of $2 million.
The seized coats are in multiple styles, sizes and colors.According to experts, the counterfeit products – which sell for approximately one-third the cost of the genuine product – are of inferior quality and do not provide the warmth of genuine The North Face jackets.. The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.
http://www.longisland.com/news/12-23-15/hicksville-man-arrest-north-face-counterfeit-scheme.html
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Sutton man jailed for selling fake and dangerous tobacco products
Ahmad Afsana received a ten and a half month jail term after he admitted a variety of charges against him following a trading standards raid on Sutton Mini Market in Brook Street, earlier this year.He admitted five counts of possessing dangerous goods for supply, contrary to Regulation 20(1) of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 during the hearing at Nottingham Crown Court.He also admitted ten counts of possessing goods with a false trademark for sale, contrary to section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1994.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s trading standards team visited Sutton Mini Market in April to carry out an inspection. They were found in various concealments around the shop, including among legitimate stock and underneath bin liners within bins.Some of the cigarettes were not self-extinguishing, so posed a fire risk. Other samples of cigarettes and the hand rolled tobacco were found to be counterfeit.
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Alibaba Taps BassiurTo Tackle Counterfeiting
Just days after the U.S. government issued a stern warning to the China-based e-tailer, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is taking action.Alibaba has appointed former Pfizer Inc. and Apple Inc. executive Matthew Bassiur as VP and head of global intellectual property enforcement, effective January 2016. The move follows several months of mounting criticism and pressure from U.S.
Among its strategies for preventing the sale of counterfeits is its Blue Star program, which allows manufacturers to print unique identifiers in the form of QR codes on their products to enable the authentication and tracking of products sold on Tmall and Taobao Marketplace.
Fake Luxury Goods ‘Could Fund Terrorism’
United Kingdom – Christmas shoppers buying toys for their children may unwittingly be supporting organised crime or even terrorist groups, according to UK border authorities. Officers from Britain’s Border Force have seized a range of fake items worth £56m from ports and airports around the country over the past year. They include toy figures modelled on characters from Disney movie Frozen, Armani watches and designer handbags.
The Intellectual Property Office has urged shoppers to report anything suspicious. In the financial year 2014-15, officers confiscated more than 1.6 million items infringing intellectual property where patents or copyright applies. Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said: “The international trade in counterfeits is linked to serious and organised crime and undercuts honest traders, damaging our economy”.
Lear MoreJail terms for substandard products fakers
The proliferation of substandard products in the country has continued to generate great concern despite efforts by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to check the menace. The recent directive given the agency by the Federal Government to reduce the volume of substandard products to, at least, 15 percent by next year is quite in order. To ensure compliance with the new order, government also proposed jail terms for manufacturers and importers of fake products.
These fresh measures were unveiled recently by the Director-General of the organization, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, at the 10th year anniversary of SON Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) in Lagos. Undoubtedly, the danger of inferior goods, either manufactured locally or imported, cannot be over-emphasised. Nigerian market cannot continue to be a dumping ground for substandard, cheap and fake products from Asian countries.
10 million smuggled cigarettes haul would have cost taxpayer £2m in lost revenue
A huge haul of ten million cigarettes has been seized by Border Force officers at Killingholme docks. The cigarettes had been shipped to the UK inside an unaccompanied trailer which arrived at the port from Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
Officers discovered the cigarettes hidden inside boxes labelled as textiles for a clothing company. There were exactly ten million cigarettes in the haul. Border Force officers use hi-tech search equipment to combat immigration crime and detect banned and restricted goods that smugglers attempt to bring into the country. They use an array of search techniques, which in addition to sniffer dogs includes carbon dioxide detectors, heartbeat monitors and scanners – as well as visual searches – to find illegal drugs, firearms and tobacco which would otherwise end up causing harm to local people, businesses and communities.
Lear MoreCustoms Intercepts Smuggled Goods Worth N23.07m
Nigeria – The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ikeja, on Saturday said it had intercepted smuggled goods valued N23.07 million. The anti-smuggling drive of the Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’, Ikeja, received a major boost following the seizure of smuggled frozen poultry products concealed in a specially-built compartment of a truck. The unit also seized 82 bales of used and new ladies’ bags and school bags Physical examination revealed that the truck had 555 cartons of smuggled frozen poultry products.
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Govt loses millions to illegal tobacco trade
Botswana – The Ministry of Health (MoH) and the World Bank said this at a workshop meant to discuss initiatives to eliminate all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products.The government is a signatory to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products 2013.At the forum held at President Hotel, deputy permanent secretary in MoH, HarunaJibril said the implications of the ever increasing illicit trading, cross border smuggling and counterfeit tobacco products are massive.
The workshop provided a platform to enable various stakeholders to share views on how Botswana could fulfill its obligation in line with the FCTC provision to eliminate illicit trade. This comes at a time when the country’s tobacco control bill is expected in Parliament next year.Senior trade facilitation specialist at the World Bank, Enrique Ivanovic said all people trading in tobacco and its products ought to be licensed.Moreover, a competent authority must be set up to issue, renew, suspend or revoke these licenses subject to the provisions of the Protocol, he suggested.
http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?aid=56673&dir=2015/december/18#sthash.bNxLGGhN.dpuf
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