Ministry intensifies fight against smuggling

An online talk show on fighting tabocco smuggling (Photo:VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Industry and Trade has intensified the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and fake goods as cross-border smuggling has increased in border areas ahead of the year-end holiday season.

The ministry’s Market Management Department has conducted 145,000 inspections since the beginning of November, detecting 88,000 violations of law, including more than 13,890 cases in the field of food safety.

Fertiliser and tobacco are among goods most prone to faking and smuggling. The department has dealt with 1,522 cases of illegally importing or trading in poor-quality and fake fertiliser, seizing hundreds of tonnes of low-quality fertilisers of all kinds.

Market control forces also detected 4,859 tobacco-related law violations, confiscating 966,000 packs of cigarettes and transferring 103 cases to investigation agencies.

According to the department, the fight against cross-border smuggling faces difficulties due to the rough mountainous terrain in border areas while the anti-smuggling forces are understaffed.

In addition, many local residents consider transporting smuggled goods as their livelihoods, thus they do not cooperate in fighting smuggling.

The Industry and Trade Ministry said it will coordinate with the police to crack down on trafficking rings and their leaders, while promoting educational campaigns to increase public awareness.

At the same time, anti-smuggling and market management forces will be strengthened to increase efficiency of the work.-VNA