Get rid of counterfeit products

COUNTERFEIT products are the threat of the marketplace and demand our alertness.
As our ports and border become centres of trade facilitating the movement of goods between countries, they have increasingly fallen victim to the illicit trade in fake goods.
It is no surprise that the movement of counterfeit goods is part of a flourishing trade with proven links to global extremists and criminal networks.
Counterfeit and pirated goods have become a serious global problem.
No country or market is protected to its reach.
Counterfeit and pirated goods not only has a marked impact on businesses’ prestige but also causes massive damage to our local small to medium enterprises because fake goods are designed with increasing sophistication while selling far cheaper.
It is time authorities get rid of counterfeit products, product labels with foreign labels and even non-English speaking foreigners.
The question on everyone’s mind would be how these foreigners did and the goods and products enter the country in the first place.
This question can only be answered by the relevant departments such as Labour, Immigration and Customs.
There is little doubt that our capital city has in recent years become a centre-point for suspicious foreign traders whose backgrounds are just as the fake goods they sell.
Seemingly, such foreigners had been enticed to our shores by the then economic boom that was spurred by the development and production of liquefied natural gas and other resource projects.
The many projects opened windows of opportunity to foreigner investors and it has attracted the vermin from the business underworld as well.
With foreign-made counterfeit products and cheap goods flooding the PNG market, it is time to clean up the city.
Our concern is that some traders of counterfeit such as the National Rugby League jerseys, miniature flags and cheap products are using under-aged children as cheap labourers.
Currently, the market is truly awash with counterfeit versions of world-leading electronics brands.
One will see that kids are selling the items (counterfeit products) on the streets to customers in moving vehicles.
They are supposed to be in school and not making sales on the road.
They are lured by money to do the sales for those companies which are spoiling these kids’ future.
It seems relevant government agencies, including Labour and Child Welfare are ignoring the issue of child labour.
Just look around and one will notice the number is increasing.
Many bureaucrats and political heads drive past these under-aged street venders every day but prefer to look the other way.
Some of them even buy these cheap products and continue to ignore the plight of these children.
In fact, the sight of under-aged children selling counterfeit and cheap foreign products at traffic light intersections and along the main city roads is becoming unbearable in the capital city.
Not only are they selling the items outside of licenced business premises but these young children are risking their lives and are traffic hazards.
Sooner or later, one of them will be seriously hurt or even killed in a traffic accident.
It would be wise of the National Capital District police to start clearing up the city streets, especially the traffic light intersections of these young vendors before they go after the real culprits.
That effort to rid the country of counterfeit materials can only succeed if the police, Customs, Immigration and other government agencies cooperate and work together to deny the entry counterfeit products into the country.