Illicit trade costs up to $40 bln in lost annual taxes
Jump to full article: Reuters, 2010-03-19
Author: Stephanie Nebehay
Intro: A global pact to halt smuggling and counterfeiting of tobacco products, which costs governments up to $40 billion a year in lost taxes, has become bogged down over ways to trace products, officials said on Friday.
The agreement would also ban duty-free sales of cigarettes, popular with international air travellers, but which health campaigners claim are often diverted into illicit trade.
The aim is to reach agreement in Geneva by Sunday ahead of a meeting in November in Uruguay where the pact could be adopted.
But by Friday, debate had not even begun on duty-free sales.
Campaigners have accused multinational tobacco companies and duty-free lobbyists of trying to derail the week-long negotiations being held among officials from 168 countries under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"There is a consensus that track-and-trace measures are needed to combat traffic in illicit products," Vijay Trivedi, policy advisor to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) secretariat, told Reuters.
"The devil lies in the detail," he said.
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