30/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - On a visit to Brussels on 28 June, Gian Domenico Auricchio, president of the Technical Committee at Confindustria (Italian employers) for defending brands and the fighting counterfeiting, raised the possibility of the Commission proposing a draft regulation in a few days, which will make the original brad for imported products compulsory. In a press statement, Auricchio underlined the commitment of the Italian minister Urso in this affair. The former met Italian MEPs and highlighted the growing importance, for companies, for the ”external dimension of competitiveness”. The Cofindustria official warned that if Hong Kong (during the WTO conference at the end of the year) does not allow for genuine opening up of the markets, Europe will have to attach a “convincing bilateral agreements policy to tackle dumping and counterfeiting” to its multilateral policy. Auricchi also raised the question with European Commissioner Kovacs, responsible for customs, of reforming the European customs code.