(ROME) - The creation of a European commissioner to fight counterfeiting is a "priority" for Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the scourge, Deputy Economic Development Minister Sergio D'Antoni said Tuesday.

"The European Union should make this problem a real priority," D'Antoni said at the end of a two-day international conference on counterfeiting in Rome attended by delegates from Interpol, Eurojust -- the EU's judicial cooperation body -- and the World Customs Organisation.

"The government proposed the creation of a post of commissioner specially dedicated to the fight against counterfeit and will try to convince the other EU member states to support this proposal," he told the delegates.

"That would help make people aware of the seriousness of this phenomenon," D'Antoni added.

Citizens should be made aware that "by buying counterfeit goods, they contribute to the finances of criminal and mafia organisations," he said.

Trade in counterfeit goods in Italy is thought to have an annual turnover of 3.5 billion euros (5.2 billion dollars), and the country seized more counterfeit goods than the rest of the European Union combined last year.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that the world consumes some 200 billion dollars worth of counterfeit goods each year, about 2.0 percent of total global consumption.

In the 1980s counterfeiters mainly copied luxury goods, but they have since diversified to reach a wider public, passing off fake cosmetics, food, toys, medicines and spare parts as genuine.

D'Antoni noted that the Italian government planned to stiffen punishments for counterfeiters.

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