The Chinese government has pledged to take decisive measures to prevent the export of counterfeits and poor-quality products to Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and countries along the Belt and Road Initiative regions to preserve the good reputation of national brands, top officials said on Monday, Nov. 9.
According to a report by China Daily, the government will increase its supervision of items such as daily necessities, electronics, cosmetics, garments and pharmaceutical products that are being exported to other countries by deploying more resources and manpower. It also vowed to crack down on illegal activities like forged export certificates and official seals, stealing quarantine clearance documents and selling clearance papers.
Chai Haitao, deputy director of the Office of the National Leading Group for Combating IPR Infringement and Counterfeiting, said that although China is the world's largest goods trader in 2014, which exported $2.21 trillion of goods, there are still some domestic and foreign criminals who collaborate with each other to manufacture counterfeits and export low-quality products to make profit.
"This has not only damaged the interests of foreign consumers, but also hurt the image and reputation of Chinese products in the world market," Chai said.
The report said that the move aims to maintain balanced and sustainable trade as well as boost domestic manufacturers' global branding amid the current weak global trade environment.
China is also set to raise monitoring of intellectual property infringement and counterfeiting in cross-border e-commerce activities, as well as strengthen cooperation with law enforcement departments of foreign countries, which include the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan.
The Ministry of Commerce also called on economic and commercial counselors in more than 140 countries to create specialized teams to protect the interests of Chinese brands, the report added.
Data showed that China has seized counterfeits and poor-quality products valued at 1.9 billion yuan ($299 million) since 2010.
"A major reason for the frequent trade frictions is the low price of China's goods," Yu Bin, deputy director-general of the department of policy and legal affairs at the General Administration of Customs, said.
"Once the quality of our products is improved, prices will go up and foreign nations will find it hard to blame China."
Since April this year, 2,197 cases of illegal shipments have been uncovered by the General Administration of Customs. Between January and October this year, the agency also conducted 708 law enforcement actions which tracked and seized counterfeit goods with a total value of 80.3 million yuan.
"Improving the quality will boost the reputation of 'made in China' products," Liu Shiyuan, deputy director-general of the department of inspection and quarantine clearance at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said.