|
Chinese products with Vietnamese names
As Vietnamese consumers have turned their backs on China-made products, retailers are trying to sell Chinese products with Vietnamese brand names.
Chinese vegetables become Da Lat vegetables
In HCM City, previously, Chinese fruit was sold everywhere as Chinese fruit. The same kinds of fruit are still being sold at markets, but they are now introduced as domestic products, or imports from Thailand, Chile or the US.
At Pham Van Hai Market in Tan Binh district, a petty merchant was seen saying to a buyer: “There are only domestically grown fruits this season. We have no Chinese fruit.” However, buyers could see buckets of fruit scrawled over with Chinese words at the shop.
An official from the HCM City Market Control Agency said that some sellers have claimed the fruit they were selling was from Da Lat city, but they could not produce documents showing the origin; the fruit was later found to be from China.
T, a merchant in HCM City who specialises in selling labels for clothing, said that as consumers nowadays only purchase Vietnam-made products, she has received more orders for ‘Made-in-Vietnam’ labels.
Some merchants say that if they told consumers that products were from China, the customers would walk away. Therefore, they have to declare wrong origins of products. Consumers only purchase goods if they are told that the goods are from Vietnam, Thailand or South Korea.
Chinese oranges are now introduced as Vinh city oranges, while Chinese cauliflower and carrots are selling as Da Lat vegetables.
The ‘technology’ of deceiving consumers
Even home appliance centres are also committing fraud in declaring the origins of products. Salesmen here tell consumers that products are assembled in Southeast Asian countries with Japanese technologies or assembled in Vietnam with European technologies. Meanwhile, the brochures provided by sellers only introduce and show the functions of the products, while there is no mention of origin.
According to Dinh Anh Huan, Business Director of Thegioididong Company, a distributor of mobile phones, a lot of enterprises nowadays order Chinese producers to make products which are then labelled as Vietnamese products. The enterprises are wise enough to choose labels that sound slightly like Japanese or European trademarks in order to swindle consumers.
An official from the Southern Goods Quality Control Agency said that most goods which have been found violating regulations in labelling are electronics and home appliances. The goods are made in China and imported across the border. As these products are not subject to compulsory control at the border gate they can easily pass through and infiltrate every corner of the domestic market.
The HCM City Customs Agency has reported a lot of cases in which importers declare wrong origins to avoid taxes, saying that this always happens with products which have different tax rates depending on whether they come from ASEAN countries or non-ASEAN countries.
VietNamNet, TT
|
