West African States meet to strategise on Counterfeits

Accra, Ghana is the venue for a current meeting whose purpose is to lay strategies for dealing with counterfeits in West Africa.

Running under the theme "Protecting the consumer against counterfeit products through inter-agency and sub-regional collaboration", Happy FM reports that this two day meeting will focus on stemming the tide of counterfeit medicines, cosmetics and medical devices in Ghana and West Africa as a whole.

In the speech of President Kufour read by the Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs, the President reiterated the concern that "counterfeit goods deny genuine products of their rightful market share, costs government significant amounts in lost tax revenue, threaten jobs and create lack of consumer confidence in products", vowing to render Ghana a "no go zone" for counterfeits.Furthermore, it is hoped that these efforts will help the country to comply with international standards set by the World Intellectual Property Organisation(WIPO), the World Health Organisation(WHO) and the International Trademark Association(INTA).

This new initiative must be applauded as another effort in the crack down on dangerous medicines and health related devices that pose grave danger to people(and animals)all over Africa.