World Customs Organization backs call for Protocol on Illicit Trade

The call for immediate establishment of a subsidiary body to begin negotiation of a protocol on illicit trade has received strong backing from the World Customs Organization, the intergovernmental agency of customs administrations.

WCO representative Kazunari Igarashi, who addressed participants during the lunchtime briefing on illicit trade yesterday, said that, “in principle we need international concerted action to counter any act of illicit trade in tobacco product, including counterfeit.”

“There is need for more power to fight the illicit trade in tobacco and that is why we at WCO want the protocol to begin,” Kazunari added. “We need international law and a stronger mechanism to control the diversion of tobacco products, prevent the smuggling and get at the underground manufacturing plants that we know exists.”

“Our mandate is to protect the health and safety of the people while ensuring a sustainable economy. We are willing to work, but the protocol will make our work easier. It cannot wait.”

At its first session in February 2006, the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recognized that international collaboration for the control of illicit trade is an important area of tobacco control and therefore decided to convene an expert group to prepare a template for protocol on illicit trade on the basis of Article 15 of the Convention.

FCA board member Deborah Arnott argued that to delay negotiation on protocol would create serious difficulties, as tobacco smuggling is increasingly becoming a big problem.

“This is a global problem which requires global solution. Guidelines are not sufficient”, she said. “The cost of negotiation ($US4 million a year) is tiny compared to revenue lost globally through illicit trade ($40-50 billion).”