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The sale of everything from knock-off hand bags and reverse engineered Nike shoes to fake pharmaceuticals is helping drive the growing global trade in illicit goods. It is estimated that around ten percent of global trade is in illegal goods and it is growing seven times faster than legal trade. When you consider that the total value of global trade was estimated in 2007 at $25 trillion dollars, that means 2.5 trillion dollars was in illicit trade; a staggering figure.

Recently, PBS aired a special focused on the growing problem of illegal goods called "Illicit: The Dark Trade". In it they showed how easy it was for individuals and businesses to acquire illegal goods and have them shipped to any location in the world. All this despite the ever present efforts of customs and law enforcement to disrupt these trade networks.

Unfortunately, China has been labeled a main location for the trade of illicit goods. This is in part due to the large scale manufacturing capabilities and volume of exports there. It is simply impossible for Chinese customs officials to keep track of all goods leaving the country. Worse still, bribery and corruption make it difficult to prevent it from happening.

Wearing fake Nike shoes or holding a fake Gucci handbag is one thing, but ingesting a potentially life threatening pharmaceutical is another. The most frightening aspect of illegal trade has to be the growing trade in illicit drugs. Untold thousands of people may be harmed or killed by taking these fake pills. Large drug companies like Pfizer claim that they lose billions of dollars in sales to counterfeiters of popular drugs like Viagra. While it is a challenge to fully measure the value of the global counterfeit drug market, what is clear is that it is a significant health issue.

At NuDeal we are on the lookout for illegal goods being listed on our site. Our fraud detection system flags potential listings and we remove those that do not respond to requests for authentication. However, it is simply impossible for any trade information site like ours to monitor everything and because of this we encourage members to read our safe trading guide to help protect themselves.

It is clear that illicit trade is here to stay and unless major changes take place in how goods are manufactured, shipped and sold, we will likely see the trade in illegal goods increase. Moisés Naím, the acclaimed editor of Foreign Policy magazine believes illicit trade could be a threat to our way of life that is as large as or larger than terrorism.