Ron Praises Customs and Border Protection's Trade Enforcement Work

Flanked by tables loaded with counterfeit videos, fake sneakers and unsafe electronics seized in shipments from overseas by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Ron held a news conference in Portland on Tuesday to highlight the benefits of strong trade enforcement.

“With the holiday season at hand, we are here to talk about how to keep Oregon families safe from dangerous products -- and confident they aren’t purchasing ripoffs,’’ Ron told reporters.

”It’s part of a trade policy I call tough and effective,” he said at the news conference with U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer; CBP Deputy Commissioner Kevin McAleenan; and Brian J. Humphrey, director of field operations in CBP’s San Francisco field office.

As an example of that toughened trade enforcement protecting Oregon businesses and consumers from fraud during the holidays and year-round, Ron spotlighted the bureau’s work intercepting fake video games that carry the threat of installing dangerous malware.

He praised Customs and Border Protection’s work seizing those video games and other counterfeit and illegally trafficked goods – everything from knockoff athletic jerseys that leave consumers ripped off when the apparel disintegrates in the washing machine, to counterfeit Christmas lights that could pose a fire hazard. 

“The reality is the counterfeiters consistently try to come up with new schemes to evade the laws,” Ron said, “and the fact is these Customs folks are doing incredibly important work dealing with those counterfeits.”

Consumers wanting more information about how to avoid mistakenly buying counterfeit products and to report counterfeits or suspicious products can go to STOPfakes.gov.