P4B duties, 1M jobs lost due to pork meat smuggling—agri group
The SamahangIndustriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag), a leading agricultural group in the country, on Tuesday said the Philippine government lost around P4-billion in revenues in 2013 and almost a million Filipinos dependent on hog raising lost their livelihood in the last four years due to outright and technical smuggling of pork meat. Sinag said data from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) indicate that 199 million kilos of pork were imported last year. However, a United Nations Commodity Trade Division (UN ComTrade) report of countries that exported pork meat to the Philippines showed pork importation at 237 million kilos –a difference of 38 million kilos that are presumed smuggled to the country.
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Turkey Wastes $10B On Fake Products
The Brand Protection Group (MKG), which has a mission to fight illicit trade and forgery and increase awareness about trademark rights, announced that the increase in the trade of illegal and counterfeit products was worrying. The spokesman for MKG, Dr. Ali ErcanÖzgür underlined the fact that piracy and counterfeit products are causing billions of dollars of losses to the world’s economy as proven by the Illicit Trade Report for 2013 issued by the World Customs Organization, highlighting the issue is now a global problem. Özgür stated that according to the data announced by the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), the volume of counterfeit product trade has reached around $10.8 billion in Turkey along with millions of lost Turkish lira of tax income.
http://www.dailysabah.com/economy/2014/11/17/turkey-wastes-10b-on-fake-products
Lear MoreAnti-Counterfeiting Packaging Market – Global Market Size, Industry Analysis, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 – 2020
Anti-counterfeiting is a measure implemented to prevent illegal imitation or reproduction of a product or service. Counterfeiting includes forgery of documents, currencies as well as imitation of shoes, handbags, clothing, automobile parts, electronic items, art, movies, etc. The counterfeited products possess fake company logos or brand names. These counterfeited products are of inferior quality and sometimes also include toxic components. The anti-counterfeiting packaging industries deal with providing brand protection, supply chain security, banknote authentication, excise tax recovery, product authentication and offering banknote fitness solutions to governments.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2339694
Lear MoreMacadamia processors want Sh20m fine for nut smugglers
Macadamia processors are lobbying for an amendment of the Crops Act, to review the current maximum penalty of up to Sh5 million in fines for smugglers caught trading in the product to Sh20 million. The push for the tougher rule surfaced during an intense inaugural stakeholder’s forum held in Mombasa over the weekend. According to the existing Crops Act, smugglers are liable to a maximum of three years imprisonment term and a maximum Sh5 million in fines.
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Smuggling thrives in face of sanctions on Iran
The economic sanctions slapped by the United States and European Union on Iran over its alleged nuclear programme are leading to an increase in the flow of smuggled goods, especially petroleum products, to Pakistan and a drop in legal bilateral trade.
Not only this, other bottlenecks, which are the result of some steps taken by the Iranian government, are discouraging trade between the two neighbours.
In an effort to rein in smugglers, Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies have sealed a 500km belt along the border with Iran by digging trenches and placing barbed wires to curb illegal supply of goods to Balochistan. However despite that, the smugglers still find a way to clear the border and dodge security checks.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/792096/smuggling-thrives-in-face-of-sanctions-on-iran/
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BAT fined for oversupplying tobacco in low-tax European jurisdictions
£650,000 penalty from HMRC reflects growing concern that surplus is finding its way back to the UK illicitly. Big tobacco, long accused of complicity in smuggling, is under close scrutiny as it emerges that one of the world’s largest cigarette firms has been fined for oversupplying foreign markets.
The practice of flooding low-tax foreign markets with more tobacco than they are capable of consuming has sparked concerns that much of the product is able to find its way back into the highly taxed UK without HM Revenue and Customs receiving its due share. Anti-tobacco campaigners claim such abuse of the UK tax system is rife and believe that a fine imposed on British American Tobacco (BAT) is merely the tip of the iceberg.
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Combating Counterfeit and Substandard ICT Devices
Counterfeiting is a negative activity that is affecting almost all areas of economies, incidentally it has become a menace in the Internet world. Apart from selling of fake products online, the production and sale of imitated or counterfeit products create huge market for products that hurt the producers of the genuine goods and also create a menancing health risk to the users.
Most ICT devices that have hit the market include mobile phones and smart devices, Cameras, Printer consumables such as toners and cartridges, memory sticks, drives, monitors, networking equipment such as Cat-5/Cat-6 structure cabling, switches and routers.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20141114_combating_counterfeit_and_substandard_ict_devices/
Lear MoreBrand protection with anti-counterfeting resins, percept technologies with TPEs
Proliferation of counterfeit goods spreads mayhem in businesses globally. Counterfeit and pirated goods are estimated to drain US$1 trillion from the global economy and rob more than 2.5 million people of legitimate jobs worldwide, as per Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce. New developments meets the needs of the packaging industry for brand protection with anti-counterfeiting resins, percept technologies, taggants, etc. A taggant can mean a radio frequency microchip used in automated identification and data capture. In such cases, electronic devices use radio waves to track and identify items, such as pharmaceutical products, by assigning individual serial numbers to the containers holding each product. This technology may prevent the diversion or counterfeiting of drugs by allowing wholesalers and pharmacists to determine the identity and dosage of individual products. A taggant is also a chemical or physical marker added to materials to allow various forms of testing.
Lear MoreLawmaker urges House to probe tobacco smuggling
A PARTY-LIST lawmaker urged Wednesday members of the House of Representative to conduct an inquiry on the alleged smuggling of tobacco products into the country. AAMBIS-Owa Party-list Representative Sharon Garin said that the government has been losing some P15.6 billion pesos in revenue annually in the illegal smuggling operations of tobacco products. Garin filed House Resolution 1542 directing the House committee on ways and means to conduct an inquiry to ensure that the government properly collects the revenues from tobacco products.
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Investigation finds smuggling at jails
Marijuana, narcotics, tobacco and alcohol are some of the contraband smuggled by correction officers at Rikers Island, in exchange for thousands of dollars from inmates’ relatives, an undercover city investigation found.
The city Department of Investigation released a report last week, about their months-long probe into the criminal activity and civil disorder at the country’s second largest correctional facility. They found that even when contraband set off metal detectors at the staff entrances, security personnel allowed correction officers to walk in without searching them.
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