Jane Lai
SHENZHEN, Huizhou and Dongguan signed an anti-counterfeit cooperation agreement in Shenzhen yesterday in a joint effort to crack down on rampant counterfeit cigarettes and cement.
The three cities will soon conduct a series of broad inspections at cigarette and cement factories and retailers in the three cities. Those found to be manufacturing or selling counterfeit products would be penalized or closed down, according to the agreement.
No date was given for the start of the campaign which would deal with cross-city counterfeiting effectively and efficiently, officials with Guangdong s provincial and city anti-counterfeit offices told the meeting.
In recent years, there had been rampant counterfeiting of cigarettes and cement in the three cities harming social order, said Guo Chi, deputy director of Guangdong s provincial anti-counterfeit office.
Cooperation would provide an interactive and efficient platform for the cities to crack down on counterfeiting activities, Guo said.
In the first half of the year, Shenzhen s market supervision administration affiliated with the city anti-counterfeit office had already organized 28 raids on the illegal productions of cigarettes, head of the administration, Xu Youzun, said. Xu took office in July after previous head Shen Qingsan retired.
We struck hard on counterfeiting dealing with 91 illegal cases involving 18.7 million counterfeit cigarettes. Seven production machines were seized and nine cases involving sales of counterfeit cigarettes on the Internet were solved, Xu said.
The administration, together with Songgang, Xixiang and Fuyong subdistricts in Bao an District and Guangming New Zone, had also inspected most cement producers in Bao an in the first half of the year and closed about 10 manufacturers and retailers, Xu said.
