On the sidelines of the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly: Zero tolerance in handling counterfeit and poor quality goods

The situation of smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and intellectual property rights infringement remains complicated. In the coming time, the Government and the Prime Minister will continue to direct the effective implementation of the fight against smuggling, trade fraud, and counterfeit goods; resolutely prevent and repel crimes with the spirit of "no tolerance, no forbidden zones"; at the same time, promptly review, amend, and supplement relevant legal documents...

National Assembly delegates attend the meeting. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

On the sidelines of the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly, many delegates continued to speak out, requesting the Government to take strong measures, increase sanctions, clearly define responsibilities and thoroughly handle the situation of counterfeit, fake and poor quality goods.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga ( Hai Duong delegation): Inspections need to be carried out continuously.

The issue of counterfeit and poor quality goods has recently become an extremely hot issue, receiving great attention from many voters and people. Recently, for the cases that have been brought to light by the authorities, the published figures have shocked all people. Because counterfeit goods are everywhere, in all fields; in which, there are types of counterfeit goods that have a very negative impact on the health and lives of consumers; such as: groups of goods belonging to functional foods, cosmetics or food groups such as milk, the consequences for consumers are extremely large.

National Assembly delegate of Hai Duong province Nguyen Thi Viet Nga asks questions. Photo: Phuong Hoa/ VNA

To minimize and eliminate the problem, I think this is a rather difficult problem, requiring many different solutions and very close coordination between many functional agencies. For the Government and the National Assembly, during this session, the National Assembly also reviewed, commented on and passed many laws related to the quality of goods.

For example: The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Penal Code has also increased sanctions for the production of counterfeit and poor quality goods and the fines have also increased significantly. Next is the Law on handling administrative violations; the Law on standards and quality standards of goods and a series of other laws.

In my opinion, the immediate solution is to review all sanctions to see if there are any loopholes for subjects to take advantage of to violate the production of counterfeit goods and regulations on ensuring the quality of goods. Next, is the sanction enough to deter or not; at the same time, there needs to be closer and stronger coordination with competent authorities to handle this issue.

If there is no close coordination, there is a very small group but the consequences are very big. Those are the people who are responsible for handling, responsible for reviewing and checking the production and trading of goods, but those are the ones who violate and assist the subjects to violate. That is what makes people lose trust.

I think that the crackdown on counterfeit and poor quality goods should not only stop at one peak month but should be stepped up regularly and continuously so that the subjects do not have the opportunity to continue to repeat the offense. If we only have certain peak periods and then relax or stop, the subjects will take advantage to continue to violate. We need to consider this a key annual task to step up implementation.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Thu Nguyet (Dak Lak delegation): There should be stronger sanctions for cases of intentional violations.

In my opinion, the responsibility belongs to the agencies, organizations and individuals in the process of carrying out inspection and supervision activities related to the quality of products and goods. It is clearly stipulated that the ministries and branches are the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry in charge coordinates synchronously with ministries such as the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National Defense, especially the responsibility of the People's Committees at all levels. Currently, the law has also clearly stated the issues related to the responsibility of organizations and individuals to implement the regulations and procedures in the declaration of conformity, conformity, standards and product quality and be responsible when putting products on the market.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Thu Nguyet (Dak Lak) answers questions in an interview. Photo: Hai Ngoc/ VNA

Along with that, the Law also clearly stipulates that agencies and organizations must be responsible for protecting consumers to identify products that do not ensure quality through such activities as: recommendations, warnings... Thus, it has created legal bases, contributing to reducing this problem.

One of the notable points in this revised law is to increase the responsibility of manufacturers and distributors and tighten management and post-inspection. It can be said that the issues related to the solid legal basis, but when put into practice, require the synchronization of responsibility of all agencies, organizations and individuals in society.

Accordingly, first of all, the authorities need to have a synchronous coordination, checking from the production stage to the time the product is put on the market. To do this, organizations and individuals must improve their own responsibility; first of all, comply with the law; at the same time, they must see that they themselves have responsibility to the people and to society when putting products on the market.

Besides, in the process of conducting inspection, in addition to synchronous coordination, it is also necessary to clarify the specific responsibilities of each ministry, branch, unit, and locality stipulated in institutions and documents to clarify responsibilities.

In fact, at present, there are still overlapping and inadequate documents. The regulations do not clearly define the responsibilities and functions of each ministry, each sector, and each locality in the implementation process. Thus, the institutions are set up by us, so if there are problems and shortcomings, they must be corrected. Only then can the responsibilities of ministries and sectors be clarified. Along with that, there needs to be stronger sanctions for cases of behavior and crimes that, for material benefits, still deliberately violate to increase current problems and issues, affecting the health, spirit, material and life of people today.

Mr. Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap delegation): Increase penalties, add criminal sanctions

National Assembly delegate of Dong Thap province Pham Van Hoa speaks. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Many cases are only strongly investigated by the authorities when the press intervenes and public opinion strongly reacts, but then everything returns to normal. This is not a new issue, the issue is raised every time the National Assembly meets, but counterfeit goods still occur continuously. This is an inadequacy in the State management of the relevant agencies, especially the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Health.

I propose that it is necessary to amend and supplement legal regulations in the direction of increasing penalties and adding strict criminal sanctions for the production and trade of counterfeit goods, especially those that directly affect people's health such as medicine and food.

Thuy Hien - Thuy Duong (Implementation) (Vietnam News Agency)

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/chong-buon-lau-hang-gia/ben-le-ky-hop-thu-9-quoc-hoi-khoa-xv-khong-khoan-nhuong-trong-xu-ly-hang-gia-hang-kem-chat-luong-20250623130006011.htm