The National Steering Committee 389 requested the Steering Committee 389 of ministries, sectors, localities and heads of agencies and competent units to focus on controlling drugs, firecrackers and consumer goods during the Lunar New Year 2021.

According to the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee 389, in 2020, in the context of focusing on the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Steering Committee 389 has asked the forces to strictlycontrol border routes to prevent smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeiting. As a result, the number of violation cases, the amount paid to the state budget, and the number of criminal cases all dropped year-on-year.

Statistics show that forces, departments and agencies nationwide have handled 201,484 violations of smuggling, trade fraud, and counterfeiting (a decline of 6.5% year-on-year). Thereby, the National Steering Committee 389 imposed fines and paid the state budget VND20,065 billion (a decline of 21.5% year-on-year). Regarding criminal cases, the National Steering Committee 389 took 1,766 cases to court with 2,254 suspects, down 5.6% year-on-year.

100kg of drugs seized by Nghe An Customs and Border Guard. Photo: Nam Sy

However, according to the National Steering Committee 389, currently when the Covid-19 pandemic is under control, social activities resume, the situation of smuggling, illegal cross-border transport of goods, trade fraud and counterfeit goods tends to increase again, including mainly consumer goods, groceries, clothes, toys and electronics.

In particular, drug trafficking and transportation is still a problem, mainly in Son La, Lang Son, Dien Bien, Nghe An and Ha Tinh. In which, most seizures had a large amount of drugs andsuspects used many sophisticated and aggressive tricks and weapons to fight the competent forces when being surrounded or arrested.

In addition, the suspects usedexpress delivery servicesto transport goods from gathering points to postal warehouses, the inland warehouses of the airport service companies or warehouses of logisticscompanies then used postal services to deliver to customers to avoid inspection and detection by competent forces.

The representative of the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee 389 said that, with the development of e-commerce, the suspects took advantage of postal warehouses to store and trade fake goods and poor-quality goods to sell to consumers, resulting in significant damage to the economy and people's health.

In order to improve the efficiency of the fight against trade fraud and smuggling during the Lunar New Year 2021, the National Steering Committee 389 has requested ministries, sectors, localities and provincial and municipal Steering Committees to directtheir competent units to focus on controlling groups of commodities such as drugs, firecrackers, and consumer goods during the Lunar New Year 2021 in order to prevent and fight smuggling acts in a timely fashion.

At the same time, to strictly control borders, strengthen control of roads from the border inland to prevent smuggled goods, counterfeit goods, and poor-quality goods. To strengthen the prevention and fight against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods and key goods such as petroleum, minerals, cigarettes, electronics, second-hand refrigeration, pharmaceuticals, and supplementary food and to pay special attention to products related to the Covid-19 pandemic prevention.

In addition, localities need to promote the information and education of the law, raising awareness and understanding of people about fighting smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeiting.