Wall Street Journal Article and Video on massive counterfeit goods problem in Asia

April 17, 2013.

Caroline Henshaw of the Wall Street Journal in Sydney has written an excellent article and made a video discussing the size of the problem in Asia for counterfeit goods.

Caroline writes “Counterfeit goods, mainly from China, have become as profitable for Asia’s criminal gangs as illegal drug trafficking, the United Nations said in a report published Tuesday.

The U.N.’s Office on Drugs and Crime, or UNODC, looked into international organized crime across much of the Asian-Pacific region. Its report, the first ever published by the agency on the topic, catalogs how rapid economic growth has led to the proliferation of criminal networks profiting from illegal trade in goods and people.

A surge in Asia’s exports, which have nearly quadrupled in the past decade or so to $5 trillion, according to the World Trade Organization, has been accompanied by a rise in the trafficking of fake-branded products including handbags and medicines, the U.N. report found.

Counterfeit goods accounted for about a third of illicit trade flows in what the report, based on data in the years between 2008 and 2010, defines as the East Asia and the Pacific region. The $24.4 billion earned from fake goods, combined with the $5 billion of annual profits the U.N. estimates the region makes from trafficking fake pharmaceutical products to Southeast Asia and Africa, is close to what the international body estimates criminals made from illegal narcotics.”

If you are interested in reading the full article and watching the WSJ video on the topic, please click here.