Multinational approach needed to fight fakes

A multinational appro ach is needed if nations especially developing ones really want to win the war against counterfeits and substandard goods instead of standing aside blaming each other.

The statement was given by a senior Chinese embassy official in Tanzania who pledged anonymity stressing that everyone is up against China claiming that it is the biggest producer and supplier of about 90% of all the counterfeited goods.

"I agree in principal that most counterfeited brands are labeled as coming form China or India in the case of medical drugs, causing everyone to talk about China and India when any issue regarding counterfeits crops up". He said.

The official said the low purchasing power of people from most poor countries is the main reason for them to be attracted to cheap products favouring the business of counterfeited products.

"It is not only China and India doing counterfeit business. Many other counties are producing, supplying and in some instances exporting fakes through their legalized export channels like borders and ports, even without the knowledge of their governments because sometimes detecting a fake is not an easy task as many of us might think."

He however added that "We Chinese people and our government are battling hard against the fakes because they are spoiling our reputation on the international arena.

Also counterfeits pose serious threat to foreign investment of any country". "If counterfeits flood your domestic market then what do you expect would be the market performance of the genuine products". he asked.

He said the economic boom of China is also being fuelled by the foreign investments, but these successes are highly threatened by the flooding counterfeits and if this trend persists, then all the investors would soon withdraw from China and taking gtheir business elsewhere where it is safe.

The Chinese government has taken a step further to arrest the trend by putting in place central and regional regulatory bodies to monitor all the exports and imports to and from China, the official noted.

The Indian High Commission officials would not cooperate in giving their comments concerning counterfeited human drugs reported to originate from that country.