Industry raises concern over grey imports

A NUMBER of parallel import issues in the country has been brought to the attention of the Department of Trade Commerce and Industry recently.
A parallel import is a non-counterfeit product imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner.
Parallel imports are often referred to as grey products or grey imports and are implicated in issues of international trade and intellectual property.
According to the department, some believe that parallel imports can benefit consumers by lowering prices and widening the selection and consumption of products available in the market.
Others believe that they discourage intellectual property owners from investing in new and innovative products.
“Some also believe that parallel imports tend to facilitate copyright infringement,” the statement from the department said.
“A number of parallel import issues in Papua New Guinea have been brought to the attention of the department in the recent past. However, the Government has yet to decide on a policy to guide the practice in this area.”
The department and the European Union Trade Related Assistance Programme Phase Two (EU-TRA 2) facilitated a one-day workshop to present the concept of parallel imports to stakeholders.
After the workshop, economist Dr Claudius Preville and a team of officials from the department will put together proposals on the way forward in this area.