JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, March 17, 2025

TTMA happy action being taken against illicit trade

by

1243 days ago
20211020
Port of Port-of-Spain

Port of Port-of-Spain

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

The T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) says it is en­cour­aged that ac­tion is be­ing tak­en against those who con­tribute to il­lic­it trade.

This fol­lows su­per­mar­ket own­ers, Stephany Wong Low and Yunx­u­an Huang who were charged with sell­ing il­le­gal cig­a­rettes and con­duct­ing il­le­gal gam­bling at their busi­ness­es.

Ac­cord­ing to the TTMA tack­ling il­lic­it trade is im­por­tant as it is linked to more or­gan­ised crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties in­clud­ing hu­man traf­fick­ing, drug traf­fick­ing and smug­gling of firearms.

“In ad­di­tion to mon­i­tor­ing the re­tail out­lets, the TTMA is cog­nisant that free trade zones can act as havens for il­lic­it trade,” it said, adding that it is there­fore, im­per­a­tive that com­pa­nies in free zones do not be­come clear­ing hous­es for il­lic­it prod­ucts.

The TTMA al­so not­ed that sev­er­al in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions in­clud­ing the Eco­nom­ic In­tel­li­gence Unit, the Or­gan­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Co­op­er­a­tion and De­vel­op­ment, the Transna­tion­al Al­liance to Com­bat Il­lic­it Trade and the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion have pro­vid­ed some rec­om­men­da­tions to ad­dress il­lic­it trade in the free zones.

TTMA ad­vised that lo­cal en­force­ment agen­cies can re­view these rec­om­men­da­tions and adapt where prac­ti­cal.

Say­ing that the TTMA will con­tin­ues to do its part to ed­u­cate the pub­lic about this prob­lem, the or­gan­i­sa­tion added that in col­lab­o­ra­tion with M Hamel Smith and the In­ter­na­tion­al Trade­mark As­so­ci­a­tion, it would be host­ing a we­bi­nar on poli­cies to ad­dress coun­ter­feit­ing.

The we­bi­nar would fea­ture rep­re­sen­ta­tives of ma­jor in­ter­na­tion­al brands of al­co­hol and to­bac­co, as well as a lo­cal ex­pert on copy­right is­sues.

For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion on the Pol­i­cy Di­a­logue – Best Prac­tices in An­ti-Coun­ter­feit­ing En­force­ment in the Caribbean we­bi­nar con­tact the TTMA Sec­re­tari­at at 675-8862 ext 225 or 239.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored