From the illicit trade in tobacco products with asbestos to dangerous counterfeit pharmaceutical products and illegal alcohol sales, the underground economy is making a killing in more ways than one. It's a threat to the financial well-being of societies everywhere.
The illicit trade is a global scourge worth trillions and it infects almost every sphere of business and life. Among the top counterfeit products are counterfeit cigarettes, counterfeit medicines and counterfeit alcohol. Illegal and smuggled goods are not just a serious threat to the health and safety of consumers. The many different types of illicit trade undermine economies, particularly in the developing world.
In part two of this illicit trade documentary series, we explore how criminal networks are killing people and economies.
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Contact Business Consultant Roger Montero at services@bastion-intel.com
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Here's what's inside this illicit trade documentary:
– How does the illicit trade affect the economy?
– Why is the illicit trade a problem?
– How common are counterfeit drugs?
– What happens if you take fake medicine?
– What is in illegal cigarettes?
The illicit trade fuels crime and violence, financing the smuggling of guns, drugs and human trafficking. But there's a hidden cost to the illicit trade. The trade in fake designer brands and other counterfeit goods undermines economies in multiple ways.
While dangerous counterfeit products such as tobacco, alcohol and medicines endanger consumers' lives, the black market is a serious threat to economies, particularly those in developing countries. From dangerous counterfeit pharmaceutical products to illegal alcohol sales, this shady underground market is more than just a crime problem. What's worse is many governments don't have a true picture of the many types of illicit trade and how global criminal networks drain their countries of financial resources. In many cases, the authorities don't have the first clue of how to stop the illicit trade.
Businesses also lose market share to the top counterfeit products as their markets can be flooded with cheaper, poorer quality versions of what they sell.
In this, the second part of our illicit trade documentary series, we explore how the selling of illegal cigarettes, illegal alcohol sales and counterfeit medicines affects developing countries. Paolo Kernahan takes a look at the growing impact of the illicit trade on the economies of countries in the Caribbean like Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados and Jamaica.
