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By selecting the fight against counterfeiting and piracy as its theme for 2007, the international Customs community has set the tone by demonstrating its firm commitment to the task of combating … this phenomenon.

It’s 12.54, a 40 foot container full of cosmetics swings overhead, borne by one of the hundreds of cranes in the port of Shanghai. Two seconds later another 40-footer with more than 8 million … cigarettes hidden inside is loaded onto a ship bound for West Africa. Only 2 further seconds tick by before a crane swings into action to load a container full of tea en route to Dubai. Every 2 seconds a container leaves the port of Shanghai. Who could fail to be impressed by the never-ending dance of these huge metal boxes, symbols of the globalisation of trade!

WCO Members have resolved to strengthen the position of Customs with regard to the protection of intellectual property rights by developing a set of IPR Standards known as “SECURE” (Standards … Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement). The purpose of this consolidated platform is to promote better compliance with intellectual property rights at borders by building Customs capacity and strengthening cooperation with its international partners and rights holders.

Once Customs authorities have suspended the release of goods infringing an intellectual property right, right-holders have to secure border measures by filing proceedings. For this purpose, right-holders … have a number of different options. The present article briefly examines the different alternatives available and looks at their advantages and disadvantages. This is very important since the resources and anti-counterfeiting budgets of right-holders are limited and consequently, right-holders should follow up border measures on a case by case basis to ensure that they add strategic value to their efforts.

The Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) has as its top priority, the protection of the public health through the disruption and dismantling of criminal groups involved in counterfeit pharmaceuticals. … To that end the PSI works closely with the WCO, Customs administrations, other law enforcement agencies and drug regulatory authorities. While some sense of the global counterfeiting problem is conveyed by well publicised cases, too often the availability of counterfeiting data is limited even at times dubious, overly optimistic, very pessimistic, or highly questionable estimates are presented as fact.

The considerable rise in incidences directly related to the counterfeiting of prescription medicines and the associated threat to public health over the past 3 years has been a major factor in … Merck & Co., Inc. (known as Merck MSD in Europe) dedicating increased resources to preventing and detecting counterfeits and counterfeiting operations worldwide. Globalisation and the Internet have led to greatly increased volumes of international trade and, unfortunately, have also presented opportunities for dishonest and unscrupulous criminals and traders to exploit the system.

Trademark and product piracy is one of the greatest threats to trade and fair competition today. The amount of damage such activity causes to the economy, to the state and to consumers means … that the authorities and the holders of the rights themselves need to invest a great deal of effort to combat this form of economic crime. German Customs has not been found wanting in this regard and for years now has been deploying multi-layered strategies to meet the challenge of curbing trademark and product piracy, and has stepped up its efforts to this end in recent years. As such, we are very proud that the WCO Council at its last meeting decided to award the WCO trophy to German Customs in recognition of its work, endeavours and results in this field.

The New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS) regularly intercepts counterfeit and pirated goods at the border. Between 1997 and 2007, NZCS removed about 1.1 million counterfeit goods from the market. … Customs officers intercept these items at airports, ports and the International Mail Centre in Auckland.

In an era of virtual worlds where everything is just one click away, the flow of postal packages is intensifying with the development of internet sales, and this is not making the task of Customs … services any easier, particularly when it comes to combating counterfeiting and piracy.

Mutual recognition, a key concept in the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards to secure and facilitate global trade, became a reality on Friday 29 June 2007 when New Zealand Customs Service (NZCS) … Comptroller, Martyn Dunne, and United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) Commissioner, W. Ralph Basham, signed a bilateral supply chain security Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA). The ceremony was witnessed by Members of the Council - the WCO’s supreme decision-making body - who had gathered in Brussels at the Organization’s headquarters for their annual sessions.

The Customs authority carries out the following tasks: • Participates in the development and execution of Customs policy; • Ensures, within the limits of its authority, the economic safety and … sovereignty of the country; • Ensures compliance with Customs and other legislation;

The World BASC (Business Alliance for Secure Commerce) Organization (WBO) is a private sector/Customs partnership that was established to promote the security of international trade in co-operation … with governments and international organisations. It is a non-profit organisation, constituted in the State of Delaware, USA, with over 2000 member companies in 16 countries throughout South and North America.

Today’s consumers are constantly prowling around to see what's new on the market. The quest to satisfy these consumers drives innovators to create new products at an ever increasing rate. Imitators … are just as eager to relieve these consumers of their hard-earned cash and they do this by copying branded products but not slavishly, just enough to confuse the consumer into thinking this is the real thing or it looks so similar it's probably "almost" the real thing and anyway the price is good. Look-alikes are disguised to deceive, but aren't these the same tactics used by counterfeiters and pirates?

The 109th/110th sessions of the Council were characterised by vibrant discussions, influential decisions and a host of nominations, not forgetting the election of a new Director of Tariff and … Trade Affairs. Buoyed by this year’s event which also touched on future directions for the WCO and its members, the WCO News editorial team have attempted to provide a summary both in text and in pictures to capture this annual three-day meeting.

The WFZC - World Free Zone Convention - hosted an international conference in Brussels from 5-6 June 2007 with the support of the WCO. The event focused on a number of pertinent issues related … to economic zones around the world and their impact on world trade.