Governments plan fightback against smugglers who benefit from corruption and lax policing
Jump to full article: White House Press Release, 2009-06-28
Author: Denis Campbell, health correspondent The Observer
Intro: A growing global trade in black market cigarettes is killing tens of thousands of people a year, causing massive health problems and costing governments billions of pounds, a hard-hitting report warns today.
A staggering 657 billion cigarettes a year are sold illicitly by organised crime gangs, half of all tobacco sold in some countries is contraband, and £24.6bn in taxes are never paid, it says.
The report makes plain that, contrary to the tobacco industry's claims, cigarette smuggling is much more common and damaging in poorer countries. Inefficient law enforcement, lax border controls and corruption among police and government officials mean smugglers find it easier to move large consignments of stolen or counterfeit cigarettes into countries in the developing world. . . .
The report comes as representatives of governments gather in Geneva to negotiate the first worldwide protocol on illicit trade in tobacco products. Heavily backed by many EU countries, the treaty is expected to lead to co-ordinated global action to try to tackle the problem. Some African administrations are sceptical because they believe it will cost them money to implement, but campaigners say that they will actually make money by ultimately being able to increase the tax on legally sold cigarettes once the black market has been tackled.
The study, part-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been written by Martin Raw of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at Nottingham University, David Merriman of Illinois University in Chicago, Hana Ross of the American Cancer Society and Luk Joossens of the Brussels-based Framework Convention Alliance pro-treaty organisation. It is called "How eliminating the global illict cigarette trade would increase tax revenue and save lives".
"The burden of illicit trade falls mainly on lower-income countries", the study found.
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