Contraband, fake products and illegal cargoes have a negative impact on many sectors. From a business perspective, contraband contributes to the growth of the black market; from a national perspective, it gives a bad image to the country. Therefore the role of Customs in any country is extremely important.

Although in the past, one may have had reason to criticise the local department, over the past few years – and with the help of technology – the Maltese Customs have earned a reputation as a “no-nonsense” department. So much so, that according to the results of an EU exercise – Operation FAKE – Malta and Italy intercepted 13 containers each that contained fake goods or contraband. For the whole of the EU, 33 containers were intercepted.

In this operation, the department seized various counterfeit items such as clothes, footwear and cigarettes. This comes off the back of another operation in which some 16 million contraband cigarettes were seized – very encouraging indeed.

Of course, one must factor in the fact that Malta is a shipping hub in the Mediterranean so we are, more often than not, the first port of call for counterfeit or contraband merchandise. That does not take anything away from the Customs Department’s work. There is no doubt that the VACIS density scanning-machine, which was donated to Customs by the US government, enables officers to check bills of lading and manifests against scans and from there it is relatively easy to pinpoint any suspicious cargo.

But as the old adage goes, prevention is better than cure. And the ultimate deterrent is exactly what Malta Customs are pursuing. Maltese Customs officers are building up quite a reputation for their professionalism and to pass on the message that Malta is not an easy port to smuggle fake items in and out of.

Once smugglers realise that Malta is a tough nut to crack, they will start to think twice about sending their wares to Europe through our country. As we argued early on, it is important to stop the sale of counterfeit goods for various reasons, four immediately to mind. Two were mentioned by parliamentary secretary Tonio Fenech who said that counterfeit trading accounts for between five and nine per cent of world trade, meaning that manufacturers lose out on between E200 and E300 billion. He said counterfeit trading also caused public authorities to lose substantial revenue, mostly VAT and customs duties.

There are another two reasons why contraband and counterfeit merchandise should be stopped. Apart from the official reasons, we must also look at the fact that counterfeit items are very often produced by exploited workers, some of them children working for a pittance in workhouses.

Many people in the world deplore these work practices – and if we can contribute in taking away the revenue of the unscrupulous – we will be winning a small victory every time we intercept something.

Another important reason is that the end customer deserves a good product when he has paid money for it. While there are some people who knowingly buy counterfeit goods, the majority do not want to. Then there are others still who do not even know the difference between real and fake merchandise.

The Customs Department should continue to work hard and demonstrate its abilities to the rest of Europe. We might not have much to shout about, but despite our size and lack of resources, we do occasionally turn up trumps as the Customs Department demonstrate on many an occasion.

So much so that a Maltese Customs officer has been appointed to join a delegation in Thailand that will be having talks on counterfeit goods. Praise where praise is due. It is well deserved and we can only hope that the sterling work is continued.