Officials from the Customs of Chile and Argentina, together with authorities and representatives of brands and other institutions, participated on Tuesday (03.09.2019) in the XXVII Binational Meeting on the Application of the Intellectual and Industrial Property Law, carried out with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Comodooro Rivadavia.
This initiative arose from the meeting of the Customs Subcommittee, where it was agreed to carry out this activity that has a strong practical componentOrganized by the Regional Customs Office of Coyhaique, the event was attended by authorities and officials from the Federal Administration of Public Revenue (AFIP) of Argentina, Carabineros, the Investigative Police and several law firms representing well-known brands such as Nike, Puma, Disney, The North Face, Jansport, Adidas, Skeachers, Under Armour and Doite.
The meeting was chaired by the National Director of Chilean Customs, José Ignacio Palma, the Consul of Chile in Comodoro Rivadavia, Roberto San Martín; the Provincial Governor of Coyhaique, Pablo Galilea; the Regional Director of Customs, Víctor Valenzuela, and the Regional Director of Customs of Patagonia, Carlos Omar Loto.
Regarding the importance of the meeting, the National Director of Customs of Chile explained: “EThis is a phenomenon of growing importance and one that has affected us all. purpose of our border procedures, because we know what it can mean for economic development and the negative impact on the country's competitiveness if illicit trade, smuggling or piracy activities are carried out.".
José Ignacio Palma added that “We are updating criteria, filters, risk management and, in general, developing joint activities. with the Undersecretary of Finance, both of us being part of the Illicit Trade Observatory under the auspices of the National Chamber of Commerce, and we are very committed to continuing to develop actions to prevent these activities from continuing to proliferate and negatively impacting the country's trade."
Meanwhile, the Consul of Chile in Comodoro Rivadavia, Roberto San Martín, added that "The theme is very interesting, because it affects us all.. Both to customs officers, to the police, to the AFIP, but also to citizens, to consumers, who through ignorance are exposed to acquiring counterfeit or pirated goods. From the consulate we are interested in knowing much more about this subject in order to be able to help people resolve their doubts.".
This activity takes place in the context of a dynamic foreign trade that poses a series of major challenges for Customs, such as electronic commerce, cross-border commerce and the protection of fair trade.
Through the presentation of cases, examples of counterfeit products, exchanges of experiences and expert panels, participants deepened inter-institutional relations to protect fair trade and citizens from low-quality products that are potentially harmful to health.
"These meetings are absolutely productive, as we listen very carefully to the presentations of representatives, because one thing is to analyze it from what is written, from the norms that regulate the matter, and another totally different thing is to observe it in practice with samples of clothing, shoes and labeling.”, stressed the Regional Director of Customs of Patagonia, Carlos Omar Loto.
Along the same lines, the Regional Director of the Coyhaique Customs, Victor Valenzuela, said that “Here are representatives of brands from the private sector. We were also accompanied by the regional directors of the Treasury, Internal Revenue, the Treasury Advisor, the Police, Sernac, that is, all the organizations that in some way combat this scourge of product counterfeiting. We are very proud that this is the first time that something like this has been achieved in the region.".
This was a meeting to enhance the skills of inspectors through interaction with professional analysts from the Risk Analysis Unit of the Metropolitan Customs Office and experts from Argentina, who presented the respective national realities.
Numbers
At the national level, between January and June 2019, Chilean Customs seized 6.519.761 units of products, ccompared to the 3.644.388 seized in the same period in 2018, with an increase of 78,90%.
Likewise, during the first 6 months of the year, there have been 432 suspensions of dispatchThat is, 47,95% more than last year in the same period, in which 292 suspensions were made.
Added to this is the decision to strengthen the Risk Analysis Units -16 throughout the country, plus the one that operates centrally in the National Directorate-, together with the development of training from Arica to Punta Arenas: so far in 2019, they have been carried out 13 trainings similar to that of Coyhaique, with the participation of 275 officials.
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