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Federal body vital to curb fake goods trade
The UAE is one of the world's biggest transit hubs for counterfeit goods and requires a unified federal body to tackle the problem, officials of a new brand protection group said.
- By Robert Ditcham, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 May 30, 2006
Dubai: The UAE is one of the world's biggest transit hubs for counterfeit goods and requires a unified federal body to tackle the problem, officials of a new brand protection group said.
Increasing numbers of fake goods produced in Asia are entering Western countries via Dubai's free zones, contributing to a $500 billion global counterfeit trade, it claims.
Currently, various agencies including Dubai police, customs and economic departments, work together to crack down on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) violations and punish those involved, but goods can creep in via other emirates.
Dubai-based Brand Owners Protection Group (BPG), made up of companies including Nestle, BMW and British American Tobacco, is calling for a single UAE-wide body to strongly enforce IPR laws.
Robert Taylor-Hughes at skincare company Beiersdorf Middle East, a BPG founder member, said more than 10 per cent of global cosmetics business is counterfeit, 95 per cent of which originates from China.
"One of the reasons we have established the agency here is that Dubai is very much well known as a hub if you are shipping goods into the west," he said. "The goods are invariably coming through the Middle East and in particular though the Dubai free zones. This is the natural route of the counterfeit traders and it's a serious problem for us."
This view was backed up by Dr Ralf Leinweber at British American Tobacco. "The UAE is one the major shipment hubs for counterfeit and illicit products all across Asia, Africa and Europe and one of the biggest hubs in the world."
The BPG said its fight to cut UAE piracy rates and reduce fake goods passing through the country would be substantially helped if a federal IPR enforcement body was set up in the UAE.
"If we had to deal with one entity and knock on only one door it would be a dream for us," said BPG chairman Omar Shteiwi of Nestle Middle East.
He hoped for an organisation similar to Dubai Customs' IPR department in the UAE.
A leading figure in Dubai Customs called for an expansion of the powers of the UAE's federal customs body, but said a political move to set up a federal IPR organisation was unlikely in the near future.
Abdul Rahman Al Saleh, executive director for business support and services at Dubai Customs, said: "I would like to see more co-ordination between the emirates, and customs bodies given greater powers of enforcement."
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