African countries have replaced China as the main concern in the fight against unsafe and counterfeit goods worth over $200 billion in trade every year, a top customs official said on Thursday.
The majority of fake clothes, toys, foodstuffs and medicines still originate from China, but the World Customs Organisation (WCO) said African nations had become major transit routes to Europe, the United States and Russia.
"Africa has become a nightmare for us. We still have problems with China, but now Africa has become our number one headache," Christophe Zimmermann, head of the Brussels-based WCO's counterfeiting and piracy unit, said in an interview. The number of counterfeit goods seized by customs officers worldwide has risen from 10 million in 1998 to 253 million in 2006 with over 80 percent coming from China, WCO figures show.
A study carried out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last year said counterfeiting accounted for over 2 percent of global trade. "Africa has become a big hole for us. The African territories, particularly in the west, are being used for transiting and commuting counterfeit and unsafe goods to hide their Chinese origin," Zimmermann said.
The European Union threatened to halt imports from China last year unless it improved its safety standards after numerous recalls of Chinese products such as toys and toothpaste. A ban was averted in November after China boosted its safety rules.
"The problem in Africa is that customs officers there might as well be invisible. They are not empowered to act. The smugglers know this and this is why they are moving stuff from China through Africa as the other routes are well-covered," Zimmermann said.
"What we need is for proper training and legislation in Africa. We need the EU and the US to put political pressure on African governments when they are negotiating trade deals to sign up urgently to our international customs treaty. "Otherwise we will continue to lose the battle, which can only be won on the ground," he added.
Zimmermann said foodstuffs had replaced luxury goods at the top of the counterfeiting table, with the latter accounting for just 1 percent of products seized in 2006 compared to 70 percent 20 years earlier.