Use of counterfeits makes a positive difference

By Kim Jae-won

The nation’s customs agency donated thousands of counterfeit sneakers and T-shirts to Laotian people.

The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said Tuesday that its Commissioner Yoon Young-sun gave 2,000 fake sneakers and 1,200 T-shirts that had been seized, to Laos Ambassador to Seoul Soukthavone Keola last week. Original plans were to discard the goods due to violation of trademark law.

“We hope to foster the relationship between the two countries with the donation,” said Yoon during the event at the agency’s office at Incheon International Airport, last Friday.

Customs officials also donated 100 sets of supplies such as crayons for elementary school children.

The customs office said about 180 volunteers, including Sivone Keola, wife of the Laotian ambassador, and Incheon Airport High School students, removed the fake labels from the goods using knives under an agreement with the original trademark owners, TOMS and Polo Ralph Lauren.

“We were impressed that the wife of the Laotian ambassador also participated in removing the labels,” said Kim Jin-gap, an official of the KCS. “We attached small national flags of Korea and Laos where the fake labels were.”

Experts say the donation will definitely boost Korea’s image in Laos, where about 800 Koreans do business.

“In the past Laotians were closer to North Korea than the South. But, nowadays, with the help from the Korean government and civic groups, they are becoming friendlier to South Korean people,” said an official of the Korea-Laos Friendship Association.

The Korean government provided $25.1 million to the nation in 2009 from its Economic Development Cooperation Fund. The nation’s doctors’ association also visits the nation regularly to provide volunteer medical services. Korea’s physically-challenged people also donated 60 wheel chairs to the country recently.

In terms of trade between the two nations, Korea exported $130 million to Laos last year, mainly autos, auto parts and machineries, and imported $20 million worth of copper ore, wood and clothes during the same period.

Kim said the customs agency left an encouraging message for Laotian people taking the example of Korea, which transformed from a nation requiring help to a country helping others after overcoming the devastation of the Korean War.

The customs agency said the donation event was like killing three birds with one stone _ reducing the costs of burning counterfeit goods, preventing environmental pollution, and practicing neighborly love.

The KCS donated 84,000 counterfeit items to local welfare centers and foreign nations, such as Vietnam, Ecuador and Kyrgyzstan last year. In December, the KCS donated 2,500 bootlegged goods consisting of jeans, sneakers and clothes for kids to a social welfare center in Mapo-gu District in western Seoul.

Korea initially established diplomatic ties with the Southeast Asian country in 1974, but it broke a year later as Laos went under communist regime. In 1995, the two nations resumed diplomatic relations.

Korea and Laos have become more closely connected as the Korea-ASEAN free trade agreement went in effect in October 2008. Laos is a member of the regional bloc.

The size of Laos is 237,000 square kilometers, similar to that of the Korean Peninsula. It has a population of 6.8 million and its gross domestic product per capita marked $850 in 2010.

Caption: Volunteers pose holding boxes of fake brand sneakers, a donation to Laotian people at a gymnasium of the Korea Customs Service (KCS)’s Incheon International Airport office on April 2. The nation’s customs agency donated thousands of counterfeit sneakers and T-shirts to Laotian people seeking to nurture a friendship between the two countries. Courtesy of KCS