Vietnam launches crackdown on counterfeits amid US pressure

Business

Gucci bag. Credits: Taylor Heery, Unsplash.

Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci… Tran Le Chi loved fashion, but the US customs crackdown wreaked havoc on her wardrobe of counterfeits ‘made in Vietnam,’ caught in Washington’s crosshairs.

“Clothes help me look trendy,” explained the 53-year-old woman, who sells illegal lottery tickets in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. “What does it matter to me whether it’s fake or not?” she stated.

Chi openly admitted to wearing counterfeits, which never cost her more than one million dong each. “The real products are not for people like us,” she declared.

Vietnam has become one of the world’s largest hubs for clothing and footwear production, attracting international brands with its abundant and cheap labour force.

However, the communist country is also a hotspot for counterfeiting — a fact that has not gone unnoticed by its main client, the US, which is increasingly concerned about the influx of fakes into its market.

This issue has taken centre stage in ongoing talks between Hanoi and Washington, with the US threatening to impose a 46 percent customs duty on products imported from Vietnam as part of a protectionist push to rebalance trade in its favour.

Repression

“I never cheated anyone,” defended Hoa, who runs a shop in Hanoi’s Old Quarter selling fake Nike, Lacoste, and North Face products made in China but stamped ‘made in Vietnam’ to appear genuine. Her clients, she claimed, buy fully aware of what they are purchasing. Speaking under a pseudonym, Hoa described the crackdown launched by the communist government, scheduled to last until mid-August, which has led to the closure of sales sites in both Hanoi (north) and Ho Chi Minh City (south).

Among the targets was the Saigon Square shopping centre in Ho Chi Minh City’s tourist district, identified by American authorities as one of the world’s most important physical markets for counterfeits. A 2024 report by the White House’s United States Trade Representative (USTR) noted that “weak penalties had little deterrent effect” and that counterfeits “remained widespread.”

Authorities seized approximately 1,000 fake Rolex watches in the first five months of the year at this mall, located just opposite the modern Saigon Centre—an American-style complex with shops, a hotel, restaurants, and offices, representing its antithesis.

Between January and May, Vietnam confiscated more than 7,000 counterfeit products valued at eight million dollars, an official from the national market surveillance agency stated in mid-June. Around 53 cases have been transferred to the police for investigation.

Fake socks

In Hanoi, law enforcement discovered over 25,000 fake speakers from the British brand Marshall, smartwatches, and pseudo-Japanese vacuum cleaners. A man was arrested at the end of May for selling more than 200,000 pairs of socks bearing Adidas, Nike, and Uniqlo logos—priced at less than 20 euro cents each.

In another case, police arrested a man accused of buying six tonnes of confectionery from China and repackaging it to appear as if it originated from Japan or South Korea by altering expiry dates.

Vietnam has pledged to strengthen controls over the origin of goods sold abroad. Washington has accused Hanoi of lax enforcement against transhipment fraud, which allegedly enables Chinese products, subject to stricter customs duties, to enter the US via Vietnam.

The crackdown on counterfeiting “plays a role in the strategy adopted by Vietnam to appease the US,” believes Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnamese researcher based in Singapore. Meanwhile, Hoa had to close her shop two weeks ago amid fears of police raids.

“I sold these kinds of clothes for a decade without problems,” she said. “Now they are targeting us, and it’s hard to imagine how I’m going to continue.”

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

Counterfeiting

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