By Nigel Williams
A top economist here said he believed that the trade in counterfeit goods could be propping up Guyana’s ailing economy, but was also causing an untold number of job losses. He called for stiffer regulations to control the sale of fake commodities, which he said ranged from handbags to pharmaceuticals in this country.
But some consumers have pointed out that sometimes they got value for money with the fake goods and with the harsh economic realities here, it would be difficult for them to survive if they were to buy the “real” items.
Economist Dr Clive Thomas, in an interview with this newspaper on Wednes-day, said that not only was the sale of counterfeit goods criminal, but it was also harming the country’s international trade reputation, cutting jobs and breeding corruption. Illicit cross-border flows, such as the smuggling of drugs, migrants, weapons, toxic waste, and dirty money, were proliferating on a global scale. In Guyana, street vendors make a killing with the sale of falsely branded footwear, handbags and clothing, which Thomas, a University of Guyana Professor, said could lead to bigger crimes such as money laundering. “These cheap fake goods could be a means of washing the ‘dirty money’ and while poor citizens would be happy buying them they are in a way contributing to the international crime of money laundering,” Thomas declared. One top bookstore in this country was forced to close its doors last year owing to widespread piracy of materials. Thomas said criminal activities of any type could harm a country’s trade reputation, resulting in the lack of foreign investments. He said the counterfeit trade could breed violence and corruption, adding that if a country developed a reputation of not adhering to intellectual property rights and was complicit in the sale of fake goods it could become unpopular in the international trade world.
He said Guyana, with no law governing intellectual property rights and weak enforcement to arrest the sale of fake goods, would one day find itself unable to do trade with certain developed countries. Thomas alluded to the growing number of vendors selling bootleg DVDs and CDs, noting that while the business might be bringing in income for the sellers the trade was unsustainable. “These things will not last. We may be prospering now and obviously in a poor country like ours the citizens would be happy to purchase the cheaper fake goods,” Thomas said, asserting that the practice was a serious violation of intellectual property rights. He said the recent Economic Partnership Agreement entered into by member states of Caricom and the European Union has stipulated the need for laws governing international property rights. He said once this was activated Guyana would have to get in line and that might very well see the end to the trade.
World economists have posited that the global value of the illicit trade was estimated to reach a phenomenal ten percent of the world’s trade. They said since the 1990s, it has been growing seven times faster than legal trade—and was having profound consequences for the world’s economy and for politics everywhere.
No restrictions
However, Michael Spencer, a teacher, told Stabroek News on Friday that most Guyanese were too poor to consider buying brand names and manufacturers of the fake items should be commended.
“Things hard hay…who would buy a DVD for $5,000 and $3,000 when they can get it for $200 and $300,” Spencer asked rhetorically.
Contacted on the issue, a senior Customs official said that as far as she was aware there was no restriction in the importation of fake goods into the country. She said customs would normally take a firm stance on pharmaceuticals but so far as clothing, footwear and bags were concerned, there was no restriction. “And it is clear because if there was regulation against this there would not have been so much on the market,” the officer, who asked not be named, said.
Thomas noted that it was against international law for one person to use another person’s brand name to sell his product.
Taking a tour along Regent Street on Wednesday, Stabroek News observed fake Nike slippers, sneakers and bags. There were itinerant vendors who specialise in the sale of fake brand name watches and colognes. And it is not just street vendors who are selling bootleg DVDs, CDs and fake brands. Some established record bars and stores have gotten into the act.
Thomas said this was so because of the unfair competition being posed by the illicit traders. “Bad money drives out good goods and so we have a situation where some of the legitimate businessmen have joined the bandwagon in selling fake goods,” Thomas told Stabroek News. He said he was particularly concerned about the situation as there were corrupt businessmen operating here who would import fake or sometimes expired pharmaceuticals. He recalled that he had an unfortunate experience once where he was sold an expired diet beverage and warned that the situation with regard to the sale of expired drugs might be more alarming than what was known. “We have people here who buy expired goods and erase the dates, while some would buy bulk goods just before they expire in that way they would get them cheaper,” Thomas said.
Fake drugs
Director of the Government Analyst Food and Drug Department, Marilyn Collins, said that while there was a perception that because of Guyana’s porous borders large amounts of counterfeit drugs were poring in, there was actually no evidence that this was so. However, she agreed that the department did not have a strong mechanism in place at the country’s ports of entry to ensure that no fake drugs were coming. “Whenever someone wants import drugs that person is required to satisfy our standards. We have to know what type of drugs, where it is coming from and we would do our checks to ensure that the manufacturer and the particular drug was of good standard,” Collins explained.
She said while many importers would satisfy these requirements her department had no mechanism at the ports of entry to verify what came in was actually what was approved. Collins said the situation meant that fake or expired drugs might have trickled in here, although she noted that her officers would inspect bonds and pharmacies periodically to ensure that this was not done. “We have clever people. They could exchange the containers of the fake or expired drugs so that is the situation we are up against,” Collins remarked.
There had been numerous cases internationally where scores of persons had died after being administered fake drugs.
Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, at a press conference last week alluded to this, noting that counterfeit drugs was still a problem here although it was not widespread like other countries. He said his department had detected three cases recently where fake malaria drugs were being sold in the hinterland.
The Food and Drug Department is tasked with ensuring the safety and quality of food, beverages, cosmetics, medical devices, drugs and water through quality assurance systems. However, Collins said her department was understaffed and under-resourced and this was a major humbug in the enforcement efforts. Asked whether the department had detected any fake drugs on the market in recent times, Collins said last year they were forced to pull a skin bleaching cream from the market after it was found to be fake. She said in that particular case, the cream was manufactured in China, but the manufacturers inserted the name of a UK company, which was making a similar product.
Beijing has now become notorious for the manufacture of fake goods, but Collins said her department was not targeting commodities originating from China. “What we do, we monitor a lot of what is happening in the US and the UK because we do not have some of the equipment to do testing of some of the drugs… So we take our cue from them,” Collins said.
She said that in order to police the sale of drugs effectively and keep up standards, there was need for updated laws in keeping with international requirements. Collins mentioned that the department was operating under a 1971 law, which did not give enough powers to inspectors and had been left lagging behind international science and technology. “The whole landscape of international trade has changed. There are now new risks, new patterns have emerged and there is definitely need for new legislation to help us upgrade our technology and empower our inspectors,” Collins asserted, noting also that her department needed a more modern laboratory which would enable it to do quality testing and not be overly dependent on alerts from the developed world.
However, she said, she felt consumers needed to take greater responsibility with regard to the drugs and food they purchase. “People need to check the labels and look for expiry dates and also do their own research on brand names,” Collins said.
Thomas said that in order to arrest the situation there needed to be a meeting of all stakeholders to plot a strategy. However, he noted that the sale of counterfeit articles might not be hurting some businesses as they had joined the band of illicit traders.
The Guyana National Bureau of Standards over the years had been taking steps to enforce quality standards, but the agency has admitted in the past that its resources would not allow it to do effective enforcement.
