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Latin America unites to launch Operation Tigre 2 to fight counterfeiting and piracy
Panama, 9 December 2011
Press Release
Twelve countries have united to launch Operation Tigre 2, an enforcement operation to combat counterfeiting and piracy led jointly by the WCO and the Panama Customs administration with funding provided by the Japanese government.
Tigre 2 will build on the successes of Tigre 1, which recorded seizures of approximately 3.5 million counterfeit goods, including medicines, pharmaceutical products, mechanical spare parts, and food products to name a few.
“The scourge of counterfeit goods and their harmful impact on society’s health and safety drives Customs’ efforts to stamp out this illicit trade,” said WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya. “This second operation will, I am sure, be as successful as the first one earlier this year,” he added.
Operation Tigre has two main objectives: to protect the consumer from goods that threaten their health and safety; and to test the WCO Interface Public Members (IPM), a tool for right holders to share information that will lead to faster identification of counterfeit goods by Customs officials.
“Panama is proud to host the Operational Co-ordination Unit (OCU) which will oversee the smooth running of this multi-country operation,” said Director General of Panama Customs, Dr. Gloria Moreno de López. “I am sure that the operation will deliver fine results for the region,” she added.
Participating countries will use the WCO IPM tool to check the authenticity of goods in real-time during the course of Operation Tigre 2.