Illicit trade in counterfeit and pirated goods damages economic growth and can harm individual and collective health and safety; fuels corruption; undermines sound public governance, the rule of law and citizens’ trust in government; and can ultimately threaten political stability. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated illicit trade, alarming law enforcement in many parts of the world

Illicit trade in fake goods is a significant and growing threat in a globalised and innovation-driven economy, undermining good governance, the rule of law and citizens’ trust in government. It not only has a negative impact on the sales and profits of affected firms and on the economy in general, but also poses major health and safety threats to consumers.

Trade in counterfeit goods represents a longstanding, and growing, worldwide socio-economic risk that threatens effective public governance, efficient business and the well-being of consumers. At the same time, it is becoming a major source of income for organised criminal groups. It also damages economic growth by undermining both business’s revenue and their incentive to innovate.

Illicit trade in counterfeit and pirated goods Goods that infringe trademarks, copyrights, patents or design rights. is a growing and significant problem. Globalisation opens up new opportunities for criminal networks to expand the scope and scale of their operations in illicit trade in such goods. These issues need to be addressed, as trade in fakes is a significant risk that undermines good governance, the rule of law and citizens’ trust in government, and can ultimately threaten political stability.

Seaborne transport plays an important role in world trade, accounting for more than 80% of the volume of merchandise traded between countries, and more than 70% of the total value of trade (UNCTAD, 2019). See also https://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=2245 In 2018, world merchandise trade As measured by the average of exports and imports, grew by 3.0 per cent, just above the 2.9 per cent increase in world GDP over the same period. It totaled some USD 19.7 trillion (WTO, 2019), more than USD 13.8 trillion of which is estimated to have been shipped by sea, in one of five basic types of vessels (UNCTAD, 2019 and Rushton, Croucher and Baker, 2017):

International maritime transport in container ships has been framed with a number of international rules and norms. In addition, the misuse of maritime transport in illicit trade is a concern of both governments and industry. They have been active in combating counterfeiting and piracy on a number of fronts, both independently and, equally importantly, with each other. Besides efforts undertaken in a national context, governments have been working through multilateral institutions and on a bilateral and regional basis to address these issues. Industry has also been active, nationally and internationally, both on a sectoral and cross-sectoral basis.

This chapter presents quantitative evidence on the misuse of containerships in the trade of counterfeit and pirated goods across global markets. While the challenges of intercepting counterfeit products transported in containers are significant, shipments of counterfeits are nevertheless intercepted by authorities.

Over time, containers have brought numerous benefits to businesses, providing them with efficient and affordable ways of trading of all kinds of goods globally. Importantly, the great flexibility and multimodality of containers have further enhanced trade, providing flexible solutions at relatively low-cost. Today, despite the COVID-19 crisis, containerised maritime trade continues to thrive as the key enabler of globalization.