Over 2.4m items seized by Customs last year

Malta last year continued to register progress in the fight against counterfeit and illegal goods imported into the EU, according to a report published in Brussels.

The report, Customs Seizures Of Counterfeit Goods At The EU's External Border In 2007, says that Maltese Customs reported 59 cases resulting in the confiscation of 2,436,021 million articles.

In 2006, Malta reported a lower number of cases, 47, but seized more illegal articles amounting to 2.7 million. Fake cigarettes were among the most seized items.

The European Commission said that last year, on a general level, Customs registered over 43,000 cases of fake goods seized at the EU external border, compared to 37,000 in 2006.

"This results notably from improved cooperation between Customs and industry, enabling them to better target suspected shipments and to recognise counterfeit goods."

Despite this, the number of articles seized dropped from last year's peak of 128 million articles to around 79 million. The Commission attributed this to a growing number of seizures involving smaller quantities of counterfeit and pirated articles.

"Cigarettes and clothing continue to be faked in large quantities and there has been a worrying increase in sectors that are potentially dangerous to consumers such as medicines, electrical equipment and personal care products," the Commission said.

Last year's statistics show that seizures have never been so high, with an increase of almost 17 per cent compared to 2006.

The report shows that China remained the main source of counterfeit goods.

However, in some categories, such as articles for personal care, other countries such as Georgia and Turkey are the main sources, while Switzerland, India and the United Arab Emirates top the list for exports of fake medicines.