The five-member East African Community (EAC) on Tuesday has resolved to fight counterfeits jointly, a senior Kenyan government official said on Tuesday.

Minister of Industrialization Jeffa Kingi told journalists in Nairobi that due to the fact that the EAC adopted a Common Market Protocol in 2010 counterfeits products and trade can only be defeated through collaboration.

"The EAC countries have resolved to come up with strategies for formalizing the inter-agency approach at the EAC regional level," Kingi said in a speech read on his behalf by the Director of Industrialization Erastus Kimuri at the regional workshop on the implementation of an inter-agency approach to Intellectual Protection (IP) and enforcement.

Over 80 delegates from the region will establish an effective framework by which counterfeit goods can be eliminated from the EAC. EAC consists of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Kingi said that IP rights have received global attention because of the role they play in innovation, industrial development and economic growth of any nation.

The director of industrialization said that most of the value of new medicines and other high technology products lie in the amount of invention, innovation, research, design and testing involved.

"Films, music recordings, books, computer software and online services are bought and sold because of the information and creativity they contain," Kimuri said.

He noted that the aim of the joint approach is that all the agencies in the EAC work cooperate to combat the vice.

Kimuri added that Kenya alone has 12 agencies mandated to fight counterfeits products including the Kenya Bureau of Standards, Kenya Copyright Board and Ministry of Trade Department of Weights and Measures.

Anti Counterfeit Agency (ACA) Chairman Allan Kamau said that member states will sign an EAC protocol that will strengthen the fight against the vice.

"Due to the fact that some countries are yet to have domestic laws to fight counterfeit, the bloc will begin with an agreement at the regional level because fighting the crime could become a legal challenge," he said.

According to the ACA, Kenya's private sector loses over 595 million U.S. dollars in revenue while government loses approximately 238 million dollars in taxes annually due to counterfeits.

ACA CEO Stephen Mallowah said that all agencies in the EAC should cluster to fight the illicit trade. "We have noted that trade in counterfeits is not just simple trans-border crime but has taken a sophisticated dimension," he said.

Mallowah said that given the EAC has different laws and cultures, they all have to come up with policies and guidelines in order to harmonize the fight against the crime.

Rwanda's Huye Commercial Court President Cyridion Nsengumuremyi said that his country put in place an IP law in 2009.

"The EAC is the process of establishing a legal and regulatory framework for the protection of IPs and the elimination of counterfeit products," Nsengumuremyi said.

"However due to the close trade and commercial ties within the EAC members, a joint war on counterfeits is the solution," he said.

Burundi's Ministry of Commerce Technical Advisor on IP Seth Gashaka said that due to the porous nature of the borders of EAC, all national agencies should work together.

"Another challenge in the region is that most anti-counterfeit laws were written before the internet was embraced by the majority of the population," he said.

U.S. Department of Commerce David Drinkard said his government will assist the EAC fight counterfeits in the region. "Our research has indicated that terrorists groups finance their operations using proceeds from counterfeit trade," he said.

He added that every free trade agreement that the U.S. has signed contains a provision addressing IP.

"Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows into countries that have implemented strict anti-counterfeit measures in order to safeguards investments," he said.

(Source: Xinhua)