On June 19-20, Valentina Dynich, the Vice-Chairperson, and Nina Kalita, the Executive Director of the "BelBrand" Association, took part in the Forum of the PMI Impact Company in Geneva (the Swiss Confederation).
Representatives of the "BelBrand" Association spoke about the goals and objectives of the project "Legal Trade – Secure World", the process of the implementation thereof, the results and the nearest events that would take place within the project. The Forum participants were the authors of projects from around the world. The approaches and the essence of the presented projects differed significantly, but all of them were united by same directions: the protection of intellectual property and counteraction to the spread of counterfeits and illegal trade.
The rich program of the Forum included a plenary session, project presentations, presentation of new products of the Philip Morris International Company, speeches of the PMI Impact Expert Council, as well as informal communication of project authors aimed to establish useful contacts.
The project "Legal Trade – Secure World" is focused on the development and use of the potentials of Belarus, its partnership with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the European Union (EU) to increase the effectiveness of ways and means to combat illegal trade.
The relevance of the project is caused by the development of trade relations within the EAEU, which due to the abolition of customs borders may be accompanied by a surge in illegal trade and sales of counterfeit products in the domestic market of the EAEU and the growth of smuggled flows to the EU countries.
As a result of the project, it is planned to introduce in Belarus new forms and methods of countering parallel imports, preventing the export of Belarusian counterfeit and smuggled goods, protecting the business reputation of manufacturers of global brands, organizing prompt receipt and exchange of information on smuggling, counterfeit, and corruption by using the Internet.