Engineers tell Lamy to get tough on pirates

Date: 07/09/00

By Peter Chapman

Europe engineering industry is calling on Commission trade chief Pascal Lamy to stem a flood of shoddy counterfeit products from the Far East which is costing firms a fortune in lost sales and putting customers' lives at risk.

Adrian Harris, secretary general of the industry's European trade association Orgalime, says the issue is now at the top of the sector's agenda as organised gangs of fraudsters are eroding the good name of European brands by passing off their products as the genuine article.

Despite the apparent good intentions of the Chinese authorities, Harris said the country - which has a huge engineering capacity - is still the worst offender. He added that counterfeit goods were hitting sales of genuine products in the Union's domestic markets but said the problem was most acute in non-EU countries, where pirated products sourced elsewhere have caused huge falls in revenue for legitimate firms.

"We have examples where a company has exports to West African countries worth several hundred thousand euro in one year and almost nothing the year after. Almost all of the fall was due to the entrance on the market of counterfeits," Harris explained.Booming sales of pirated goods such as watches, designer clothes and compact discs have prompted repeated calls from industry for tougher action. But Harris argues that the safety implications of customers using, for example, sub-standard electrical kit for industrial applications makes the problem faced by the engineering sector even more pressing.

He said firms were collecting a raft of data and concrete examples to present to Lamy and his trade officials at an informal meeting later this month. "We have already given them a lot of data and we are re-enforcing that by having direct discussions on where they can see the practical impact," he added.

Harris, whose organisation represents 100,000 firms with a combined annual turnover of more than €1,000 billion, said companies would also discuss possible ways in which the Union could exert pressure on errant countries and their counterfeiters - either directly or via the World Trade Organisation now that China, at least, is preparing for accession.

The engineering industry's move comes as the Commission prepares to unveil proposals for overhauling its general policy on counterfeiting, following up on a Green Paper published more than a year ago.

The institution intends to launch a package of proposals including a full-scale assessment of the economic impact of the damage caused by counterfeiting, coupled with a study of the legal situation in different member states. Other initiatives will include moves to boost administrative cooperation between authorities in EU countries, training for judges and police forces, and awareness campaigns targeted at the general public.

Europe's engineering industry is calling on Commission trade chief Pascal Lamy to stem a flood of shoddy counterfeit products from the Far East which is costing firms a fortune in lost sales and putting customers' lives at risk.