Tema, Oct. 20, GNA -- The Tema office of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), has started an exercise to destroy 16, 40 footer containers filled with fake cigarettes.
The products, worth over 15 million US dollars were in transit to Mali from China in 2005, but had been declared unwholesome after investigations indicated that it contained fake cigarettes. According to the Tema Regional Assistant Commissioner of CEPS, Mr Akwasi Yankyera, last year they had information that some of the products were being shipped through Tema with inscription "sports shoes" on the boxes but contained cigarettes.
He said they intercepted the 16 containers and realized only the first two layers of each contained sports shoes with the rest being cigarettes and the address of the importer which had Suhum in the Eastern Region was also detected as fake.
The Commissioner said the owners never turned up since the goods were seized in May 2005, so with the help of the Police they opened it and sent samples to original manufacturers in the country which later proved to be fake.
He however, noted with concern that these products which contained undesirable materials and dangerous to human health would have be brought back into the country through unapproved routes. To ensure that the exercise was transparent and everything was destroyed the Assistant Commissioner announced that the destruction exercise would continue daily until its completion. He said the seizure has been the highest in Africa in 2005, and this shows that Ghana does not condone with importation of fake products.
Mr Yankyera said trafficking of fake goods in the sub region had been a big problem and needed to be checked, adding that Ghana, being a member of the World Trade Organisation is also a signatory to the World Trade Act and "this mandate us not to allow counterfeit goods into the country."
The exercise was supported by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), the Security Agencies as well as the Port health authorities.
