Counterfeits from China to SE Asia

The UK government last week released a report on the issue of counterfeiting between China and South East Asia and how it impacts UK companies. The report from the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with with UK IP firm Rouse, studied trade routes, ports, land borders, transshipment (through Hong Kong and Singapore) and Chinese and SE Asian government approaches to the problem. Interviews with companies and associations were conducted.

The big picture is that counterfeiting is a developmental issue, a small part of a wider problem of weak legal systems, widespread illicit business practices such as smuggling and corruption and poor quality business operation in emerging markets.

Specific concerns over the Myanmar and Vietnam borders with China were covered, along with the lack of working IP border protections system in SE Asia. China is putting huge resources into anti counterfeiting but “the scale of the problem is not diminishing despite the Chinese government’s efforts”. One conclusion is that the ASEAN and the AEC will need to address the issue, because the flow of counterfeit goods from China causes widespread damage to SE Asian economies.