Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Oct 27 2008 (IPS) – A draft protocol to eliminate all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products, such as contraband, illegal manufacturing and counterfeit cigarettes, has been outlined at the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body in charge of drafting the protocol, which ended on Saturday, debated the possibility of creating a group of experts to review certain initiatives, including the feasibility of an international system for monitoring and tracking tobacco products.
The system must have international standards and be appropriate for low- and middle-income countries, said Eduardo Bianco, a Uruguayan doctor and the Latin American head of the Framework Convention Alliance on Tobacco Control (FCA), a network of non-governmental organisations.
It must include elements of technology, like special markings and labels for cigarette packs and cartons, so that they can be traced from the producer to the end user to ensure that they do not deviate from legal sales channels, Bianco told IPS.
The protocol must contain cooperation commitments that apply across national and regional boundaries, because a product can be shipped from the United Kingdom to the Middle East, return to Europe and end up back in the U.K., he said.
Similarly, in Latin America, tobacco products originating in, or in transit through, countries like Paraguay or Panama are sent on circular journeys and return to the same countries, where they are sold at lower prices. That is why international cooperation is needed, Bianco emphasised.
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In Chile, international and intersectoral cooperation policies have contributed to reducing the share of contraband cigarettes from eight percent to just two percent of total consumption, Manuel Navarrete, head of the internal revenue service s illegal trade office, told IPS.
Fighting contraband is part of the provisions of the Framework Convention, the first international health treaty, which the WHO began to shape nine years ago. The first working group session was held on Oct. 25, 1999.
The final text of the Convention was approved in 2003, and it entered into force in 2005. It has been ratified by 160 states so far, making it one of the most rapidly and widely embraced United Nations instruments.
Controlling illicit trade in tobacco products is a major issue, because such criminal activity puts cheaper cigarettes on the market and therefore contributes to the smoking epidemic, which is costing millions of lives, said Brenda Abrar-Milani, a WHO spokeswoman.
Between Oct. 25, 1999 and 09:00 Geneva time (08:00 GMT) on Saturday, 39,850,410 people around the world died from illnesses related to smoking or passive exposure to tobacco smoke, the Alliance of non-governmental organisations said.
But the effects of illicit trade in tobacco products are not restricted to public health, as it also has a profound economic effect on countries, with losses of tax revenues amounting to some 50 billion dollars a year worldwide, Abrar-Milani said.
And that figure is just an estimate; it may be much greater, she said.
The draft protocol on illicit trade in tobacco products includes the idea of introducing a licensing system to identify those who work in the chain of manufacturing and marketing of these products. If any legal obligations are broken, they will lose their licences, Bianco said.
Other measures that have been proposed are aimed at combating money laundering and the adoption of minimum standards on crimes, as well as heavy penalties to act as a deterrent.
In Uruguay, smuggling cigarettes does not carry a prison sentence. The smuggler simply pays a fine and continues his or her illegal work, because it is classified as an economic crime, Bianco said.
The proposed group of experts will also be asked for its opinion on duty-free sales of tobacco products.
Tobacco companies make high profits from duty-free sales, as the cigarettes are sold at lower prices but no taxes are paid, Bianco said. They also transport their goods under the protection of In Transit or Duty Free labels, he said.
The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC), an organisation of companies related to duty-free shops, commented this weekend that the working group in Geneva had discussed the inclusion of a clause calling for a ban on duty-free tobacco.
This came as a surprise, as duty-free was not a high profile issue during the first round of discussions on this protocol in February, said Keith Spinks, the secretary general of the ETRC.
Abrar-Milani told IPS that no decision was taken on a ban on duty-free by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, but it was strongly supported.
The duty-free companies reacted strongly, because they have huge financial interests to lose, she said. It s a good sign for us. It means that the negotiations were positive because they reacted immediately, even though no decision had yet been made.
The negotiating body will meet again in June 2009 in Geneva for further work on the protocol.
At the current pace of discussions, there may be consensus on a final document at the third session, or at the meeting after that, Bianco said.
