Counterfeit goods from China make up almost 2pc of world trade

A staggering 75 per cent of all fake goods seized worldwide from 2008 to 2010 were primarily from China, a report revealed on Tuesday.

The World Customs Organisation also said the booming industry accounts for some two per cent of world trade despite it being considered a “soft” form of crime.

And organised crime groups dealing in fake goods, drugs, human trafficking and illicit wildlife trade earn nearly $90 billion annually in East Asia and the Pacific, a separate UN report showed on Tuesday.

“Transnational Organised Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment” is the most comprehensive study of the subject, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

It estimates that the top money-makers for crime groups are the trade in counterfeit goods ($24.4 billion), illegal wood products ($17 billion), heroin ($16.3 billion) and methamphetamines ($15 billion).

Fake medicines ($5 billion), the black market trade in used electronics components to avoid legitimate recycling ($3.75 billion) and the illegal wildlife trade ($2.5 billion) also rank highly.

Migrant smuggling and the trafficking of women and girls for prostitution or general labour also earn crime bosses hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

UNODC deputy executive director Sandeep Chawla said the report opened the window on “the mechanics of illicit trade: the how, where, when, who and why of selected contraband markets affecting this region”.

“It looks at how criminal enterprises have developed alongside legitimate commerce and taken advantage of distribution and logistics chains,” he said at the launch in Sydney.

Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said many of the organised criminal activities could have serious global health implications.

“Between one-third to 90 per cent of anti-malarial drugs tested in Southeast Asia are fraudulent,” he said.

“They do not contain what they say they do. Sub-standard drugs have two serious public health consequences. One, people get sicker or die. Two, drug-resistant strains can develop and cause a global health threat.”

He said the threat from organised crime is now so great that it has the ability to “destabilise societies around the globe”.

“Illicit profits from crimes in East Asia and the Pacific can buy property and companies and corrupt anywhere,” he said.

“We need to talk about this, and organise a coordinated response now. It takes a network to defeat a network.”