Rong Kluea (Poipet - Aran) market vendors face ruin

More than a year after the enforcement of tough intellectual property laws in Thailand, the majority of Cambodian vendors at Thailand’s Rong Kluea market are on the verge of giving up selling counterfeit products. Hundreds of stalls at the popular border market in Aranyaprathet, at which most of the vendors are Cambodian, are at risk of closure amid decreasing customer numbers and dwindling incomes.

Last March, the Thai military cracked down on counterfeit products in multiple Cambodian-owned stores and warehouses at Rong Kluea market, while fake goods worth nearly 10 million baht ($300,000) were confiscated from Cambodian vendors. A Cambodian clothes vendor named Sak said that after the Thai military crackdown on multiple Cambodian-owned stores and warehouses at Rong Kluea market in early 2016, most vendors stopped selling imitation or counterfeit goods.

They turned to selling unbranded and original products instead, but business has been bad. “We have no choice because we fear being arrested or having our products seized by the Thai military following the enactment of their intellectual property laws,” he said.

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