A consultant with the East African Community EAC), Mr William Maema, says that the Tanzania government could be losing anything between 540bn/- to 900bn/- to contraband every year basing his figures on Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) estimates.
The EAC consultant was speaking at a workshop on anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy and other intellectual property rights violations held in Dar es Salaam yesterday. The workshop which brought together legal experts, policy makers, EAC staff and journalists was designed to solicit input into a study conducted by Kenyan-based law firms appointed by the EAC Secretariat to develop a policy paper on these issues.
He said the study had since singled out Zanzibar and Burundi for lack of indigenous manufacturing sectors largely due to widespread counterfeiting and piracy, among other factors.
He pointed out that even though Tanzania had established an anti-counterfeit department within its Fair Competition Commission (FCC), its jurisdiction doesnt cover the Isles, where counterfeiting and piracy are so rife that government departments and the private sector players estimate that over 90 per cent of all consumer goods sold there were fake.
He said that Zanzibar was one market which has been completely ignored by the brand owners in terms of registration or enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), and that the consultants could not find a single local legislation against the infringement of IPRs. The study has also revealed that most counterfeit goods in Burundi are alleged to come from Tanzania, China, Kenya and Uganda, he said.
Trading is most intense in products such as stationeries, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, electrical and electronic gadgetry, perfumes, clothing, footwear, automotive spare parts, computer software and hardware.
He also cited corruption as a major contributing factor to counterfeiting and piracy in these countries which subsequently leads to a breakdown of institutions preceded by lack of capacities as a result of ineffective investigative, detective and law enforcement capacities in such institutions.
The study aims at developing a policy which will lay the foundation for the establishment of an effective regional mechanism to combat and eliminate counterfeiting and piracy trade, Maema counselled.
The policy which will eventually become law is geared at creating conducive investment environments in the region as a prerequisite to industrialization. But the consultant also said that there was need to come up with a broad definition of counterfeit in the face of increasing globalization, arguing that counterfeit dealers were exploiting the market because of a low purchasing power in medium and low income countries — the bastion of counterfeit products including drugs, he said.
The EAC Director of Trade, Dr Flora Musonda, emphasized on the need for public awareness, saying that once the policy was ready, the secretariat would facilitate heightened public awareness on counterfeit across the region.
A participant said that there were already counterfeit drugs dispensed on doctors prescription from renowned hospitals, but fell short on details. Such doctors, she claimed, were collaborating with importers of such medicines through kick-back commissions.
The study funded by the Investment Climate Facility for Africa is currently in its first phase, and recommends enactment of a law that would have legal teeth across the region within the ambit of the Customs Union. The EAC brings together Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda, all of them signatories to the 2005 Customs Union and are currently working to establish a common market by 2010.
Daily News
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