US$1.7 trillion lost to counterfeiting globally – AGI

The President of the Association of Ghana Industries [AGI], James Asare-Adjei, has asked for concerted efforts to combat the influx of counterfeit products into Ghana,as illicit trade in these products are estimated to have exceededUS$1.7trillion globally.

According to Mr. Asare-Adjei, counterfeiting is estimated to be accounting for not less than 10 percent of trade in Africa, whereby it reduces governments’ revenue and causes serious fiscal drain on most economies.

“Product counterfeits affect revenue to government; many operators of counterfeit products want to evade taxes, and these are things that the AGI thinks should be highlighted so that with concerted efforts we can be able to fight against it,”he said.

Mr. Asare-Adjeisaid this at the World Anti-counterfeiting Day seminar, which was on the theme‘United against counterfeiting’.

The programme was instituted to make the public aware of how detrimental pirated products can be to buyers and private sector businesses so as to find ways of fighting against it.

He further stressed that counterfeiting cripples fragile businesses which produce genuine products, in that counterfeit producers price their products 10-30 percent cheaper than genuine products so as to attract more buyers -- hence eating into accredited manufacturers’ or company's revenue.

This, he said, is a major cause of business failure, leading to the collapse of enterprises and profitability of the private sector.

“What we have to understand is that it is a revenue-loss to businesses and also the country’s economy,” he added.

Many organisations, he disclosed, are bearing the brunt of losing their hard-earned reputations to people who sell pirated goods in the name of original ones.

Regarding the pharmaceutical aspect of piracy, he said it is an issue of life and death when unlicenced (counterfeit) drugs could put the lives of consumers at risk and cost the nation to spend more more on healthcare.

“Fighting counterfeiting must be a long-term and persistent goal. This menace poses serious health and safety risks to customers of all categories of goods. It is even more dangerous to fake pharmaceutical products.

“Beyond this, many of us have no clue what features to look out for. Indeed, it is quite difficult for the ordinary consumers to differentiate the genuine products from the fake ones which find their way onto our markets,” he said.