On Monday last, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) seized and destroyed yet another quantity of inferior electrical merchandise. This time, there were 6,867 products that included cords, outlets, breakers and surge protectors among other items. Just over six months ago, in January this year, the GNBS had seized and destroyed 4,800 inadequately labelled and uncertified light switches. In both instances, before destroying the items, the bureau had given the importers time to produce the necessary documents to certify them as being in conformity with the country’s standards. Of course, they were unable to do so.
While this is a serious problem in Guyana, it is also very rampant on a global scale and not just in the electrical industry; in fact, one would be hard pressed to name a sector that has not been infiltrated by the production of cheap and inferior imitations. Though many countries have and are making serious moves to clamp down on it, the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods still flourishes. As fast as they are booted out of business by countries with stringent standards, counterfeiters quickly bloom in other locations where officials can perhaps be persuaded to look the other way and the population is possibly penurious or not self-aware enough to afford and demand quality.
In a paper published this year by the World Trademark Review, the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) noted that based on global customs seizures alone, the illicit trade in replicated goods has been experiencing a surge. The last attempt to monetize the scale of the problem was quoted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development at some US$506 billion in 2016.
If one estimates though that for every three seizures one shipment escapes detection (and the possibility exists that the ratio is even closer, maybe 1:1) then the scope of the problem eclipses the imagination. It gets worse, when one considers all the places knockoff items enter without discernment and are widely distributed before the authorities even notice; like Guyana, for instance.
It was only in 2019 that the GNBS announced new regulations for the importation of electrical installation products and warned that whatever items did not meet the standards it had set were liable to be seized. Even so, it gave importers and sellers six months to shape up and become compliant or face prosecution in addition to the seizure of their defective goods. One wonders at the wisdom of this move, particularly when the danger inherent in substandard electrical products is obvious.
It is no secret that counterfeit electrical products can malfunction with the resulting overheating or short circuiting leading to fires and shocks or electrocutions, causing damage to and destruction of property, homelessness, joblessness and loss of life. Given this country’s unstable electricity supply, it is shocking that the necessary standards to improve safety were developed this late in the day. The nexus should long have been sighted between shoddy electrical components like wiring, switches and plugs, for example, and the countless devastating fires deemed electrical in origin, particularly in cases where homeowners or inhabitants swore that they had not left appliances on.
One does not have to be a rocket scientist, or even an electrician to know that a power surge, which is often an unavoidable occurrence, can cause damage to very sturdily built appliances. While it is true that in this country surges often happen when power is returned after blackouts, which still occur with annoying frequency, and it is easy to blame the troubled Guyana Power and Light for all and any surges, there can be other sources. Faulty wiring can cause surges as well as the powering up or down of motors in air conditioners, fridges and elevators. Lightning has also been known to occasion power surges, although this is quite uncommon.
Imagine then, what occurs when the wiring, cables, outlets, cords, light switches and surge protectors installed in a building have been produced using inferior materials, like plastics where copper should have been used, for instance. In the worst-case scenario, there will be sudden conflagration resulting in the loss of that building, perhaps others nearby, and death if its inhabitant/s cannot escape. This has happened once too often here.
There is an unfortunate perception in this country that low-income connotes inferior and it is shameful that struggling families or single parents deemed to be in that bracket are the ones mostly targeted by these shyster importers with their tawdry imitations. The GNBS must be lauded for clamping down on them and ought to be given as much support as possible to continue to do so, especially now.
According to the ICC, COVID-19 has “overwhelmed global business and, to date, has created the most substantial negative supply chain security effect in history”. This is manifesting in the construction industry where there is a veritable shortage of building supplies, including plumbing, electrical and glass. This is the kind of gap counterfeiters hope for and would exploit to the fullest if given the opportunity. Regulations and standards, which we can all play a part in upholding, are what will keep them at bay.
