China losing its 'counterfeit' moniker

International policing organisations tracking and fighting illicit trade continue to focus strongly on the Far East, and China in particular. “We have seen a decline in the volume of counterfeit products as well as illegal goods coming in from China, but it remains a country we watch closely,” said Howard Pugh, senior specialist for Europol. Speaking at a recent conference in Cape Town on illicit trade organised by The Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa (TISA), he said Ukraine and Lithuania were emerging as regions of serious concern. “Traditionally China was a country where the most counterfeit goods were being manufactured but this is not necessarily the case anymore.” He said investigations had shown more and more manufacturing sites were being opened within countries while shipping was no longer the preferred mode of transport. “With shipping goods are at sea for several weeks and so the rate of detection increases as containers can be identified as law enforcement officers wait for their arrival,” he said. “By having factories within countries goods don’t have to go through any customs procedures while there is also less chance of trucks being stopped as they come across as your average delivery vehicles.” He said this new way of operating was far more difficult to police. “The factories are put up for a few hundred thousand pounds but the profit made on the first truck consignment covers all the costs. Very sophisticated technology is used and these factories are only in one place for a couple of months before being moved in their entirety to a new location.” He said moving smaller amounts of goods more often as opposed to large consignments was far more taxing on law enforcement resources. “We are therefore engaging more and more with legal trade to understand how the supply chain works. That allows us to identify loopholes and to see how the criminals are exploiting the system.” This is also the case in South Africa, a TISA spokesman told FTW. “We still see a lot of product coming in from China but it has decreased. We are seeing more manufacturing sites in the country while more goods are being brought in cross border from other southern African countries than ever before.”