An adviser to the Director General of Customs in the Kingdom has said that one half of motor accident deaths in the Kingdom are caused by fake products among the more than one million tons of spare parts imported into the country each year. Eisa Al-Eisa, presenting a Customs Department paper on the dangers of counterfeit spare parts at a workshop Wednesday, said that the traffic accident death toll for the year 2007 was slightly below 6,000, and that some 3,000 of the deaths were attributed to poor quality imitation spare parts – notably tires and brakes – which had passed into the Kingdom through customs points. Abdul Mohsin Al-Shunaifi of the Risk Management Unit said that the number of parts being seized by officers was on the rise, but that greater focus needed to be given to training staff in spotting imitation products. “Imitation spare parts are some of the most dangerous instances of commercial fraud as they directly affect the consumer,” Al-Shunaifi said. “The Kingdom imports 1,027,691 tons of spare parts worth SR29 billion each year.” Abdullah Al-Awwad, director general of Riyadh Customs, said a common database with input from the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the chambers of commerce was required to give customs officials access to up-to-date information on registered trademarks.
