Destruction of goods seized by Customs

This part of the Empty Quarter has seen two worrying trends emerging in every day practice across the region flowing from the issue of what happens to goods seized by Customs.

The first is that Customs allow the importer to export the goods outside the country of detention or, if seized in a member state of the GCC, to allow them to be exported outside the GCC. The reasoning seems to be that if the goods are not in the country/region then they are no longer a problem. This is plainly not the case. In one recent example dangerous, explosive, counterfeit product was allowed to be exported to a third country. This simply puts other people at risk, rather than removing the risk completely.

The second is that Customs simply store the goods with no process for destruction. Customs are doing a great job of detaining goods. The processes for the destruction simply have not been worked out.

The root causes of both of these issues are that neither the facilities to destroy or recycle the goods nor the enforcement mechanisms to hold the consignee liable for the cost of destruction/recycling either exist or are readily available.

Seizure of counterfeit products without permanently removing them from circulation is no real seizure at all. Rights holders will simply, in time, stop working with Customs to seize counterfeit products. It will be consumers who are ultimately harmed.