Counterfeiting Could Affect Shipping

Counterfeiting has become a multibillion dollar industry with exponential growth in past 10 years. Just about any product can be copied and sent out as the real thing. Now that the world has moved towards a more global economy and technology has made it much easier to move products, counterfeiting has become the new “drug dealing” for people involved in illegal activities. Not only can these companies make a profit just by selling the goods, but their margins are incredibly high since they do not hold to the higher standards of the products they are replicating. So how does all of this affect the international freight shipping? Since the ports are the main source of entry for products coming in from abroad, there has become increased security looking out for counterfeiters. They have even gone so far as to implement anti-piracy laws that include distributing counterfeit goods.

Although shipping containers with these products do go through US customs and are scrutinized as much as possible, the only way to single out the illegal activities is to know which companies are involved. Unfortunately the loss of jobs and tax revenue, while increasing, is not enough to stop each shipping container at each port. Not only would it impede the flow of goods, but there would need to be counterfeit experts at each port which is impractical at best. The shipping industry is already trying hard to move through their daily processes to get containers in and out as fast as possible. These types of proposals cannot possibly be considered reasonable and therefore we will need to rely on anti-counterfeiting laws and regulators to bring these people to justice.