Customs have seized another container of counterfeit school textbooks at the wharf in
Nuku’alofa.
Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Commerce, Consumer, Innovation, Trade, and
Labour , Edgar Cocker, said the container contained materials designed to look like Warwick
Croxley Red exercise books.
Cocker told Kaniva News the book was an example of professional intention to counterfeit a
New Zealand idea and concept.
The fake textbooks were made in China.
“This is against the Consumer Act and therefore we have the right to hold the materials and confiscate,” Cocker said.
His department was working closely with the Customs Department on the matter.
“Tonga is now a victim of counterfeit and professional duplication,” Cocker said.
“The Ministry is now focused on stopping this illegal work by Asian and other developing countries.”
The container was imported by a Chinese businessman.
Fine
In 2016 Xiao Long Fang was fined TP$9000 for importing a large number of exercise books
which purported to have been printed by Croxley Stationary Limited.
“Potentially Croxley and other suppliers could have been very seriously affected had the
defendant succeeded in his object, but Customs seized the product on delivery in
Tongatapu and hence the defendant was not able to sell them,” Hon. Justice Cato said at
the time.
Last year Tonga’s Reserve Bank warned that counterfeit TP$50 notes were in circulation.
