EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A European Commission annual report on customs detentions has shown that the vast majority of fake goods entering the 27-member union continue to originate from China, although last's year global economic downturn saw a decline in numbers.

In 2009, EU customs officials took action in 43,500 different cases where they suspected counterfeited goods were being brought into the EU, a fall on 49,000 cases in 2008, according to Thursday's report (22 July).

Officials were quick to attribute the decline, the first in a decade, to the general fall in world trade last year however, rather than reduced product piracy levels, with 64 percent of the IPR infringing articles originating from China.

Of the main categories of detained products, cigarettes accounted for 19 percent, other tobacco products 16 percent, labelled goods 13 and medicines 10 percent.

Despite the dominance of fake goods from China, a majority of counterfeit foods and beverages originated from Turkey, while a majority of fake medicine entering the EU could be traced back to the United Arab Emirates.

The report comes as the EU commissioner responsible for customs, Algirdas Semeta, prepares to discuss the issue at an international conference in Shanghai this September.

Brussels also intends to come forward with a legislative proposal by the end of the year to clarify and simplify the bloc's customs procedures, with the current legislation on IPR enforcement dating back to 2003.

De Gucht

In a separate but related event on Thursday, EU trade commissioner Karel de Gucht told journalists that European firms were becoming increasingly worried about doing business in China due to a lack of intellectual property protection.

Mr De Gucht told reporters at an EU trade event at the Shanghai World Expo that many of the concerns originated from Beijing's policy of 'indigenous innovation'.

By forcing foreign companies to register as Chinese companies before being allowed to participate in the country's public procurement market, the policy brought overseas intellectual property "into the open", explained the Belgian politician.

The comments come just days after two leading German industrialists voiced similar concerns directly to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at a roundtable discussion also attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.