Part 4: What loophole makes "the elephant go through the needle hole"?

The management of counterfeit foods, counterfeit drugs are still inadequate, so the smuggler can take advantage. Picture: Quang Hung.

Constantly complain about “difficulties”

Through the understanding of the reporter, it is known that with the regulations allowing companies to self-declare products, self-responsibility for products that the Ministry of Health put forward, was one to create favorable conditions for production and business enterprises, but on the other hand, it is a loophole for some companies to exploit to take advantage of with low quality products, "unlisted statistics" content and components to sell at high prices to get profit. Relevant functional agencies such as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Industry and Trade are responsible for post-inspection, but if the post-inspection is not good, not often will be harmful, sometimes "hands on" inspection, those products have already been in the consumer belly. (I’m not sure how to alter this as I’ll have to guess the object of the sentence)

Analysis of the causes of the inspection and examination of violations related to functional foods is difficult, talking to reporters of the Customs Newspaper, Mrs. Tran Viet Nga, Deputy Director of food safety, Ministry of Health admitted, to prove functional food products are fake, the quality inspection process is quite laborious with having to send them to many relevant agencies for comparison. Not to mention, even if detected, can only be fined administratively according to regulations, and the penalty is not high enough to deter defective individuals and organizations violating intellectual property rights.

"Not to mention, functional forces have not really coordinated closely together, making control of the market difficult, leading to the problem of counterfeit and imitation products increasingly overwhelming genuine products," Mrs. Tran Viet Nga admitted.

Another limiting point in the management regulation, according to Mr. Tran Hung, Deputy Head of the market management department, Ministry of Industry and Trade, to conclude an infringement of rights between the two real and false products, the process will have to go through many different factors. The most difficult is when the company has not registered to establish rights to the product. In addition, when their products are counterfeited, the business itself is still cautious about this situation.

Also complaining about difficulties, Mr. Duong Ngoc Vien, Team 14, Department of Market Management of Hanoi, said the origin of products related to functional foods, drugs are very popular. Meanwhile, the anti-counterfeiting coordination is "problematic".

According to the Mr. Vien, in 2017, market management of Hanoi handled nearly 1,600 cases of functional food and counterfeit medicines with fines totaling about 17 billion VND, while for some other industries only a few cases or dozens of cases. Not to mention, the Market Management Team 14 has handled dozens of high-quality counterfeit supplements with international quality counterfeit units, but the prosecution of these violations still meets many difficulties. For example, with counterfeit drugs the object was recovered by the authorities, but when transferring files to health authorities, the agency said that this substance has not caused serious consequences and should not be prosecuted.

Just trying is not enough

To overcome the "holes" in the management of functional foods, counterfeit medicines need the coordination of related agencies, consumer consciousness and measures of self-protection of enterprises.

Mr. Tran Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Market Management, said that to control fake goods, must start from the label. Therefore, there should be coordination of the Publication Department, Ministry of Information and Communications for management. "According to the Law on Publication, printing labels must have a contract, so the people who print the labels cannot be innocent when printing stamps of foreign brands, helping the counterfeiters," Mr. Hung said.

On behalf of the Ministry of Health, Mr. Vu Tuan Cuong, Director General of the Drug Administration said, in 2018 the Ministry of Health will set up inspection teams to prevent smuggling, illegal drug circulation, prevention of counterfeit medicines, drug business of unknown origin, no invoices, vouchers; To build information channels to receive and process information on suspected quality of medicines and counterfeit medicines. Accordingly, when the medicine is registered for circulation, the Ministry of Health shall evaluate the drug registration dossier from raw materials, production processes, quality standards, stability and clinical data. Drugs produced / imported are only allowed to be put into circulation after inspection and meet the quality standards registered. When the drug is in circulation, the manufacturers / importers have to supervise themselves and take responsibility for the quality of their medicines and report to the management agencies when detecting signs that may affect the consumers’ health.