Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
Clive Bates (CB) notes on the summary of the ICITT meeting
Licensing
Licensing should take account of specific national circumstances License is a privilege demonstrating fit and proper' person to conduct this business A statement was drafted that describes obligations of licensee The list of entities to be licensed also included growers (CB which would be problematic and pointless)
Record keeping
Obligation on licensee to submit to:
Access to info by authorities Verifiability Standardisation Accountability Auditing Inventory control. Used to help regulate business, collect tax and reduce illicit trade.
Jump to full article »
ROTH: Roughly $16 million U.S. a year is the estimate of the smuggle profits. Before I introduce my next guest, I should tell you tobacco manufacturer Phillip Morris declined our request to appear on this program. The other major U.S. tobacco manufacturer, R.J. Reynolds, Brown and Williamson and Lorillard Tobacco did not respond to our requests.
Now onto our guest. Joining me now to talk about the issue of tobacco smuggling and other things, Dr. Derek Yach. . .
YACH: Well, I think it was very productive. We saw the world of law enforcement joining hands with public health and realizing that they have additional work to do both on the law enforcement side and public health. They really were able to identify a number of very specific strategies that they could take home to their countries around the world to improve tracking, tracing, and monitoring very practical measures to start looking at how they can reduce the illegal traffic in tobacco, how they can monitor it better and very importantly I think it generated a sense that this is a global problem that requires a global response. . .
YACH: Well, by far the biggest is China, where we have about a million tobacco deaths a year out of 320 million smokers in the country. That's colossal compared to the U.S., which constitutes about 4 percent of world smokers. In India, you have the second largest number of deaths, about 700,000 tobacco deaths. And of course, a large amount of those are not just due to cigarettes, as we know them, but a wide range of other tobacco products that are chewed or sniffed and are available across the market.
ROTH: Very briefly, isn't it very hypocritical for these delegates to be gathered in the U.N. headquarters where everyone is smoking in the hallways despite WHO, World Health Organization, your organization's demand that U.N. buildings be smoke-free and everywhere else.
YACH: I don't think it's hypocritical. I think it's a question of leadership, and we would hope that the leadership of the U.N. in New York would apply the same effective measures that Dr. Brundtland has applied in Geneva and that way I can assure you that you would have no smoking in this building
A senior World Health Organization official said Thursday a U.N. meeting between health and law enforcement officials should reap health and financial benefits from a toughly worded treaty on tobacco control this autumn -- curtailed cigarette smuggling and smoking.
Two days of The International Conference on Illicit Tobacco Trade sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms concluding at U.N. headquarters saw widespread agreement that will enhance upcoming negotiations on a global tobacco-control treaty, said Dr. Derek Yach, Executive Director of the WHO's Cluster on Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health.
"The problem of smuggling is important for both of us," he told reporters. "The first reason we are concerned is that smuggled cigarettes are cheap cigarettes and cheap cigarettes means more consumption among the young and the poor and that increases consumption markedly.
"Smuggled cigarettes evade health warnings, they evade (health) labeling, and very importantly they result in massive loss of revenues to governments," Yach said. "From the crime side they also contribute to money that is floating around a system and that can be used for criminal activity as well as for terrorists activities."
The meeting attended by representatives from 145 countries brought together public health professionals and law enforcement officials who traditionally have different agendas, Yach said, but fostered "a common sense of purpose of tackling tobacco control that will help us all."
Many of the 145 countries attending a global conference on cigarette smuggling like the idea of devoting part of their tobacco tax revenues to fighting trafficking, a World Health Organization official said on Thursday.
"Many, many countries felt that this was a very sensible way to go, and I believe this will be in the final text of the meeting, " said Dr. Derek Yach, head of noncommunicable diseases at the Geneva-based U.N. health arm, the World Health Organization.
"That formula, we believe, is something which should be followed, " he told reporters at the end of the three-day conference at U.N. headquarters sponsored by the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Officials of the U.S. agency said cracking down on the illicit tobacco trade was intended to ensure governments got all the tax revenues due them, so they could spend the money on health programs, among other things.
Strict controls on tobacco sales are also necessary for governments to carry out such health-related policies as restricting sales to young people and requiring health warnings on packaging, they said.
Subject:
Follow-up/closing News Conference for the International Conference on Illicit Tobacco Trade (ICITT)
When:
Thursday, August 1, 2002
This conference presents an opportunity for us to learn from each other and work together to strike a blow against the illicit trade in tobacco products. This work is important for several reasons. This illegal activity results in a loss of revenue vital to the operations of Governments, it provides financial fuel to organized crime and terrorist activities and it can undercut health policies.
This conference that brings together experts from around the globe offers a special opportunity to achieve a lasting impact that none of us standing alone could accomplish. The unique experiences that each of us bring to the table will serve to strengthen all and enable us to face down this growing problem that crosses oceans and borders.
I represent an agency that has been in the tobacco business for centuries.
As a part of the U.S. Treasury Department, ATF is responsible for regulatory oversight, tax collection, and law enforcement with respect to the most controversial legal products in American society. We approach these multi-faceted duties with an array of employees that range from armed criminal investigators, to inspectors with rights to enter businesses and examine inventories, books, and records, to a host of expert auditors, chemists, lawyers, and other professionals.
Tobacco tax in the United States is big business. . .
In 1776, during some of the darkest times for the American revolutionaries, George Washington appealed to his countrymen for aid to the army: "If you can't send money, send tobacco." During the war, it was tobacco exports that the fledgling government used to build up credits abroad. And, when the war was over, Americans turned to tobacco taxes to help repay the revolutionary war debt.
And so, tax on tobacco in the United States traces back to our beginnings as a nation. . .
We know that if we can move kids through this critical period without smoking, the chances that they will pick up the habit when they are mature adults is considerably diminished.
Thus we can see that while the problems surrounding our efforts to effectively control tobacco sales are daunting, the stakes are enormous. Let our efforts this week be the beginning of increasingly effective ways to combat the illicit trade in tobacco. By sharing best practices we also create a shared vision to deny criminals easy profits from illicit trade in tobacco products, and in so doing provide a benefit to public health.
These conferences provide the framework for mutually agreeable and beneficial actions we can take. I applaud all of you here today who continue to seek solutions. Despite the frustrations we may face, we are more likely to succeed if we move forward together.
On behalf of the United States, I appreciate your attendance and participation, and I offer our best wishes for a successful conference. Thank you.
The ICITT conference open sessions will begin promptly on Tuesday, July 30, 2002, at 9:45 a.m., in conference room 4 at the United Nations. The roster of speakers and tentative times are as follows:
Raymond Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department . . . Bradley A. Buckles, Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
We would like to welcome you to the International Conference on Illicit Tobacco Trade being held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, July, 29 - August 1, 2002.
Participant Badges: You can pick up your civil society badges at the United Nations Headquarters building, public lobby on Monday,
At the invitation of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), public health and law enforcement officials from 145 nations gathered for a three-day conference July 30 to August 1 to discuss how to curb the illicit trafficking of tobacco products.
"This conference presents an opportunity for us to learn from each other and work together to strike a blow against the illicit trade in tobacco products, " ATF Director Bradley Buckles said July 30. "This work is important for several reasons. This illegal activity results in a loss of revenue vital to the operations of governments, it provides financial fuel to organized crime and terrorist activities, and it can undercut health policies."
Tobacco trafficking presents "huge problems both for crime fighters as well as for public health advocates, " said Dr. Derek Yach, executive director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) non-communicable diseases and mental health unit, at a press conference July 30. . .
Kenneth Bell, a U.S. attorney in North Carolina, described a major case against 25 individuals who smuggled van loads of cigarettes from North Carolina to Michigan. Two of the traffickers were convicted of using their profits to provide material support to the Hezbollah terrorist organization. . .
During the conference, the first ever held on illicit tobacco trade, the law enforcement community considered best practices to prevent or counter such crimes and consider issues such as licensing, record keeping, labeling, cigarette tracking and tracing, border controls, information sharing, mutual assistance and international cooperation, ATF officials said. . .
Dr. Yach of WHO said that the conference "shows us that tobacco control has gone beyond the old stages of sticking up a couple of posters and thinking that will do the trick. We have the World Customs Organization, the World Bank and a large number of law enforcement officers complementing what is usually seen as a narrow public health area of responsibility."
"The timing of this (conference) is very important, " Dr. Yach said. "It comes as we are entering the final phase of negotiating the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This is the first time WHO has used its treaty-making right in any area of public health."
"To suggest that the Canadian duty-free industry is part of the illegal tobacco trade is to ignore all the facts and put rational thought aside."
These words today from Andre Bergeron, Executive Director of the Association of Canadian Airport Duty-Free Operators in response to proposals at a conference in New York this week related to the World Health Organization's (WHO) ongoing negotiations for a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Mr. Bergeron was responding to a draft provision at the conference that calls for "progressively restricting, with an eye toward prohibiting, duty free sales of tobacco".
Like the rest of the international industry, Canadian land-border and airport retailers believe they should not be made victims of anti-contraband or export control policies when they are not responsible for this problem.
The duty-free representatives took great exception to false accusations put forward by non-governmental organizations such as the Framework Convention Alliance in their conference brief suggesting that large tobacco quantities may be sold legally from duty-free outlets to smugglers.
In fact, the Canadian duty-free industry has in place best practices in terms of controlled premises, strictly enforced regulatory controls on the transfer of tobacco products, and restrictions on sales including personal use limits and the prohibition of sales to minors.
The Canadian Government itself has testified before the Senate in Parliament to this effect stating: "the Canadian duty-free industry has not been a source of contraband. They are tightly controlled."
Anti-smoking delegates attending a United Nations conference on cigarette smuggling are presenting the Liberal government's 1990s policy of reducing tobacco taxes to thwart smugglers as a case study in what not to do when combatting the illicit cigarette trade.
The policy, representatives of nearly 150 countries are hearing, increased the number of smokers and reduced government revenues.
The Liberal government is now engaged in an aggressive program to reduce the number of smokers. Cigarettes are again heavily taxed and legislation requires tobacco products to carry graphic warning labels.
But to price smugglers out of the market in 1994, the government slashed taxes that had been placed on cigarettes in the 1980s and early 1990s.
"The United Kingdom took a different approach," Dr. Derek Yach, executive director of the World Health Organization, said at the three-day conference, which wraps up today.
"Over US$310-million was invested in better border controls. This is expected to yield an extra US$3.6-million in revenue over three years and assure continued declines in tobacco use."
We understand that private parties will have a limited role at the conference.
Nonetheless we believe it may be beneficial to the discussion for us to outline our views on the three main issues to be discussed – tracking and tracing, licensing and recordkeeping and information sharing. We also want to confirm our willingness to support governments in their fight against illegal trading in cigarettes and to describe the steps we have taken both internally and in conjunction with governments to try to ensure that our products reach their intended destination and are not illegally diverted.