70% of pirated products enter the country with gift bags from Paraguay

By ETCO

Source: Diário de São Paulo, 14/12/2004

The Friendship Bridge, which connects Foz do Iguaçu to Ciudad del Este, goes beyond a simple connection between Brazil and neighboring Paraguay. The site is the main gateway for counterfeit goods in Asian countries and is destined for the Brazilian market. The Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (Etco) estimates that 70% of counterfeit products sold in the country entered the border with Paraguay. "Through the Friendship Bridge, all types of products come in, from clothes to counterfeit computers," says Etco President Emerson Kapaz. He estimates that, in Foz de Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este alone, 50 thousand people survive from piracy. ? At the end of the year, even vacationing students start working as middlemen ?, he explains.


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