Ms. Vu Thi Anh Hong, Editor-in-Chief of Customs News, delivered the opening speech. Photo: Quang Hung.

Attending the seminar were speakers Nguyen Hung Anh, Director of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department (General Department of Customs); Dang Van Dung, Deputy Chief of the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee on anti-smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeiting; Nguyen Duc Le, Deputy Director of Operations Department (General Department of Market Management); and Vu Kim Hanh, Chairman of the Association of High Quality Vietnamese Products.

Protecting genuine businesses and consumers

Speaking at the opening of the seminar, Vu Thi Anh Hong, Editor-in-Chief of Customs News, emphasized that in 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic developed complicatedly, affecting business activities and people's lives.

Although the pandemic has halted many production and business activities, the reality of contraband and counterfeit goods still occurs, and people take advantage of the pandemic to evade the inspection and control of functional forces.

Recently, with the policy of proactive and flexible adaptation in pandemic prevention and economic recovery, many localities have returned to a new normal state, domestic and international trade activities have gradually resumed. In that context, along with the increasing consumer demand at the end of the year, it is forecast that the situation of smuggling, counterfeit goods, and goods infringing upon intellectual property will become more complicated over routes, fields and areas, especially during the upcoming Lunar New Year.

On December 2, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, Head of the National Steering Committee Against Smuggling, Commercial Fraud and Counterfeit Goods (National Steering Committee 389), signed and promulgated the plan on fighting smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeit goods on the occasion of, before, during and after the Lunar New Year in 2022. That shows the importance and the need to continue to strengthen solutions in anti-smuggling and commercial fraud to protect consumers and businesses.

In fact, while Vietnamese enterprises are making efforts to bring consumers quality products at reasonable prices, they are faced with a large number of competing contraband goods to deceive consumers, creating an unhealthy business environment.

For functional forces such as Customs, Market Managers, Police, Border Guards, etc., although they regularly check and control, detect and prevent violations in time, with the complicated developments of the pandemic and the increasingly sophisticated tricks employed, the fight against smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeiting still faces many difficulties.

“Customs News organizing a seminar is one of the key tasks, together with the whole Customs sector and functional forces to implement the Plan of the National Steering Committee 389 on the peak of anti-smuggling and trade fraud on the occasion of, before, during and after the Lunar New Year in 2022. Customs News wishes to create a forum for functional forces to discuss the current situation and measures to control, prevent and detect smuggled goods, counterfeit goods, goods infringing intellectual property in the time before, during and after the Lunar New Year as well as in the future in order to protect consumers and genuine businesses," the Editor-in-Chief of Customs News said.

Fakes brazenly advertised

A representative of the business community attending the seminar, Vu Thi Kim Hanh, said, at the peak of shopping period at the end of the year, fake goods appear again.

“On social networks, the trade in counterfeit goods is quite arbitrary; advertising fake goods recklessly, brazenly, indifferently. This makes the business community very upset because of the great damage caused by not selling goods, losing reputation, brand name. This can bankrupt the business. More dangerously, if the problem of fake goods is not controlled and handled, there is a risk of destroying the production activities of genuine domestic enterprises," said Vu Kim Hanh.

Faced with that situation, the Chairman of the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Enterprises asked the authorities to regularly inspect, sanction and promote communication on prevention and control of counterfeit goods, and goods infringing intellectual property rights.

“Organizing seminars (as organized by Customs News) is very necessary, but more importantly, it is necessary to fight and strictly handle acts of producing, storing, trading in fake goods; good communication for consumers to boycott, condemn the production and sale of fake goods,” Vu Kim Hanh said.

Sharing with businesses' pressing concerns, representatives of functional agencies shared the same view that smuggling, including counterfeit goods, goods infringing intellectual property, is a very complicated problem. In that context, the functional forces have actively deployed measures to fight, detect and handle many violations.

Nguyen Hung Anh said, even in the context of the pandemic, smuggling activities have not tended to decrease, in which fake goods, imitation goods, goods infringing intellectual property are diverse from fashion to food and cosmetics.

In particular, the trade war between major countries has made fake foreign goods of Vietnamese origin complicated in recent years.

Counterfeit goods of famous brands smuggled from China were detected and seized by the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department. Photo: T.Binh.

Facing that situation, the Customs sector has been proactively planning to fight, detect and handle many violations.

Sharing the same view, Dang Van Dung said the problem of counterfeit goods is still complicated due to great benefits, high consumer demand, limited domestic production capacity, along with the need to buy the foreign products of consumers. In particular, there is a situation where some civil servants abet criminals.

According to Nguyen Duc Le, in the domestic market, taking advantage of e-commerce to trade in counterfeit and banned goods, especially masks and medical equipment, has become very complicated in recent times. Faced with that situation, the market management force has stepped up the application of technological solutions to prevent and combat contraband, counterfeit goods, and poor quality goods.

Customs News continues to inform its readers about the important contents of the Seminar.