Prime Minister chairs conference to combat, prevent and repel smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods

On the afternoon of June 23, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a national online conference to review the work in the first 6 months of 2025 and summarize the peak period of fighting, preventing and repelling smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods and infringement of intellectual property rights. The conference was connected from the central to local points.

Delegates attending the conference at Ninh Binh bridge point.

Attending the conference at Ninh Binh bridge point were comrade Tran Song Tung, member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; leaders of a number of relevant departments, branches and units.

According to the report of the National Steering Committee against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods (Steering Committee 389), in the first 6 months of 2025, the situation of smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and infringement of intellectual property rights has been complicated nationwide, especially violations in the fields of pharmaceuticals, food, health protection foods, fake milk... affecting people's health and trust.

The issue of counterfeit and fake goods has received special attention and close direction from the leaders of the Party, State, Government and National Assembly ; the Government and the Prime Minister have issued many telegrams and directives to direct the fight against and thoroughly handle the above violations. In particular, on May 15, 2025, the Prime Minister issued a telegram on launching a peak period to fight, prevent and repel smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and infringement of intellectual property rights, from May 15 to June 15, 2025, Directive No. 13 dated May 17, 2025 on strengthening the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods in the new situation.

As a result, in the first 6 months of 2025, units and localities arrested and handled nearly 50,000 cases of smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and tax fraud; collected nearly 6,500 billion VND for the state budget; prosecuted 1,899 criminal cases with 3,271 defendants. During the peak period of June 2025 alone, functional forces nationwide detected and handled more than 10,400 violations, collected over 1,278 billion VND for the state budget, and prosecuted 204 cases.

Thereby, many organizations, networks, gangs, and subjects of smuggling, trade fraud, illegal transportation of goods, prohibited goods, production and trading of counterfeit goods, goods of unknown origin, and infringement of intellectual property rights on a large scale, operating inter-provincially, have been discovered, fought, and destroyed, contributing to protecting the legitimate and legal rights and interests of people and businesses, and protecting security and health safety for people.

In Ninh Binh province, in the first 6 months of 2025, market inspection and control work was strengthened. Forces such as Market Management, Police, Customs, Border Guard, Tax... coordinated to inspect 422 cases, handled more than 406 administrative violations, with a total fine of 5.4 billion VND. In addition, units collected taxes and confiscated infringing goods worth over 8.5 billion VND; prosecuted 16 cases with 24 subjects.

Particularly during the peak period from May to June 2025, the authorities inspected 84 cases, of which 81 were administrative violations, 1 was criminally prosecuted, and 2 cases are under further verification. The total administrative fine was more than 1.65 billion VND. The value of confiscated goods was more than 3.65 billion VND; the value of goods forced to be destroyed was more than 7.35 billion VND.

The main violations include: trading in smuggled goods, goods of unknown origin, and counterfeit goods. Typical exhibits include: cosmetics, frozen foods, children's toys, shoes, clothes, coal, etc. Many serious cases have been discovered, typically: Hai Be Company Limited, a garment factory processing thousands of counterfeit products in Yen Khanh district. In addition, many businesses selling children's toys, children's shoes, laundry detergent, frozen foods, etc. have been discovered and handled, with goods worth hundreds of millions to billions of VND.

At the conference, delegates shared the results in the fight against, prevention and suppression of smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods and infringement of intellectual property rights. At the same time, they discussed and clarified some existing problems, limitations, causes and proposed solutions such as: continuing to improve relevant institutions, policies and laws; promoting propaganda work; improving the effectiveness of coordination between levels, sectors and localities in performing tasks; strengthening surprise inspections in key areas; controlling registration activities and product quality declaration, etc.

In his concluding remarks at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh commended, acknowledged and highly appreciated the active participation of all levels, sectors, forces and localities in recent times, especially the implementation of the peak period of fighting against crimes related to the production, trade and circulation of counterfeit goods, fake goods, poor quality goods and goods of unknown origin. However, the situation of smuggling, production, trade and circulation of counterfeit goods and fake goods is still very complicated, causing confusion and anxiety among people, especially affecting the health, rights and legitimate interests of people and businesses.

The Prime Minister requested that ministries, branches, localities, functional forces and the business community seriously grasp the spirit of "no forbidden zones, no exceptions, no tolerance" for smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and infringement of intellectual property rights; considering this an important political task. The leaders of ministries, branches, localities and units continue to improve leadership, attach responsibility to the results of preventing and combating violations in their localities and fields; urgently review and perfect the legal corridor, especially overlapping and loophole regulations; promote administrative procedure reform, synchronously apply digital transformation in market management, customs, tax, etc.

The Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations proactively propagate and mobilize people and businesses to consume responsibly, promote the role of community supervision; encourage and honor organizations and individuals who make efforts to produce and trade honestly, and protect Vietnamese brands. Strengthen coordination in data sharing, deploy early warning systems and trace product origins nationwide; strictly, publicly and promptly handle all violations to deter and educate the public.

Minh Hai-Minh Duong

Source: https://baoninhbinh.org.vn/thu-tuong-chinh-phu-chu-tri-hoi-nghi-dau-tranh-ngan-chan-124374.htm