East Africa: Report Counterfeit Cases, China Tells East Africa

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

Abduel Elinaza

13 March 2011

Nairobi — CHINA has advised East African countries to report cases of substandard and counterfeit products and tighten the monitoring of their import gates.

The Chinese government is also fighting to control fake and low-quality products at the source to restore confidence on the quality, safety and reliability of their goods.

The Chinese fake and substandard goods have flocked the East African Community (EAC) member states, to the extent that it has become difficult for individual governments to fight the trend.

The Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, Mr Liu Guangyuan told the Inter Region Economics Network participants here over the weekend that the EAC governments should also advise traders to stop importing fake goods.

“Most recently,” the Ambassador said, “ministry of Commerce of China, together with seven ministries, initiated a joint campaign in fighting counterparts and improving the quality of Chinese products.”

The programme sought to reclaim the reputation of Chinese foreign trade products. But he defended their products that some are not faked rather of good quality with low prices. “Please inform us whenever a fake case is revealed, so that joint effort could be taken,” Mr Liu said, adding that local dealers should also be taught and warned “not to import fake products of low costs for high profits.”

The ambassador was presenting his key note regarding the workshop’s theme that is Eastern Africa Ready for China, India and Europe. The training brought together about 30 participants from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

He said both Chinese and African people are honest, optimistic, hardworking, hospitable, courageous and open-minded to see the former investment to the latter increased over the years.

By last August, China had more than 2,000 of its companies set up their branches in Africa, with various categories of investments amounting to USD 23.3billion, taking up 10 per cent of China’s total investment abroad. China-Africa trade volume reached USD 126.9billion in 2010, accounting for 4 per cent of China’s total foreign trade.

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