London: Death traders kill hundreds of Iraqis with commercial fraud

London: Death traders kill hundreds of Iraqis with commercial fraud

Achieving: auspicious Basil
BAGHDAD, April 20 (UPI) - The London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Arabi published an investigation into the magnitude of the health disaster caused by food traffickers from the underprivileged.
On the sidewalks and small shops in the residential neighborhoods of Iraqi cities and even in the markets of Baghdad and its large commercial complexes, the buyers and shopping should be involved in the distinction between fake and original products, the phenomenon of commercial fraud worry about the population and traders these days, From physical and human losses and thousands of items of goods, from food, consumer, domestic and even pharmaceutical products, some of which are manufactured in unlicensed local workshops and workshops, that counterfeit by copying original product names without complying with any sanitary procedures or requirements, It is smuggled from Iran and Turkey, and is not under the eyes of censorship either, especially with regard to the history of consumption. . Two days ago, the Iraqi Economic Court issued a statement demanding citizens to verify the information contained in the product and the brand, fearing that they were victims of counterfeit goods.
The court determined, according to the statement, the places of spread of unlicensed laboratories, asserting that tampering with the date of validity and falsification of marks and re-packaging are all the most prominent images of fraud in the Iraqi market.
The statement quoted the judge of the investigation of the Economic Court, Iyad Mohsen dammed, that the Iraqi state has increased its interest in the food file as it concerns the life of the citizen and affects the health and financial income, in addition to the fact that food corruption is a crime affecting the economy of the State, pointing to the start of legislation to combat this phenomenon.
Among the laws that Iraq has recently enacted is the Consumer Protection Act, which defined the offense of trafficking in corrupt foods as misdemeanor, according to article 10 thereof.
The Ministry of the Interior estimates the number of factories and workshops that engage in commercial fraud at more than 2,000 units, which are specialized in the production of counterfeit goods throughout Iraq, from meat and milk, through agricultural products, canned materials, soft drinks, construction materials, And an Arab enjoys the confidence of the Iraqi citizen.


Colonel Falah Taleb al-Saadoun, from the Ministry of Interior's economic crime department, estimated the loss of commercial fraud at at least $ 80 million a year.
He pointed out that the losses of this phenomenon have reached the lives of citizens, where the registration of cases of poisoning and various diseases led to the death of about 129 citizens last year, including 89 cases because of drugs that were imported from Iran and injected into the markets after the change in the date of validity of use.
Al-Sadoun said that the Ministry of the Interior seized more than 350 factories and factories in the past year, but the number of workers still remains high, pointing out that the security forces' preoccupation with the crowd has made commercial cheating professionals multiply and multiply.
"Merchandise in the Iraqi market has become very confusing even to some traders," said Mr. Bahr Mahmoud, a meat and food dealer in Baghdad. "The fraud and imitation of the goods is at a high level of craft, and the low prices of the imitator attract the consumer to buy it without thinking about the date of manufacture or nature. Production inputs ".
Mahmoud pointed out that the most important thing that widens the circle of these unlicensed laboratories, which do not care about the safety conditions because they are not subject to legal accountability, is the lack of decisive legislation in the punishment of their owners, pointing to the need for more stringent measures by the regulators, and the lawmakers to surround them.
The Consumer Protection Law is subject to legislation. The importer and the advertiser are required to confirm the product data from the date of validity to the country of origin, and must be written in Arabic.
In a press statement two days ago, Abdullatif pointed out that some routine procedures at customs outlets may lead to damage to goods. "Therefore, we are in front of goods that meet the conditions but are damaged upon arrival in the country because they remain in the borders for a long time outside the general storage contexts."
She pointed out that many food items are perishable, and that they remain in customs for a long time affects their quality, demanding that the procedures for the entry of such goods be expedited.


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