'Strict Regulation May Encourage Illegal Tobacco Trade' according to British
American Tobacco's Chief Executive, Paul Adams. He has warned that
important efforts by governments to reduce the health impact of tobacco
could go badly wrong and give illegal and often irresponsible traders
and importers of tobacco an avenue to make money, while putting lives
at extreme risk.
Source: AllAfrica
Adams gave this statement following the global World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting held in South Africa, which adopted extreme guidelines to be positioned as best practice for governments in tobacco policy-making.
These guidelines could worsen the scourge of illegal tobacco trading if tobacco manufacturers are pushed by pressure groups into extreme and unworkable measures, he said.
He said, "we fully agree that the manufacture, distribution and sale of tobacco products should be regulated. But these 'guidelines' raise serious questions about real best practice in policy making. They are a potential recipe to vilify and marginalise legitimate, tax-paying, regulated businesses, employing thousands of people, and risk forcing tobacco products 'underground' where the illicit, non-taxpaying, unregulated trade is already flourishing."
He said the guidelines were intended to give governments a guide to implementing their obligations under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a WHO treaty setting out a framework for tobacco regulation. But aspects of the "guidelines" conflict with widely accepted legal principles and existing legal obligations of governments and could drive the tobacco trade yet further into the hands of smugglers, counterfeiters and criminals, he said.
Adams said "despite the clamour for 'denormalisation,' exclusion and extremism being promoted by many anti-tobacco activists, many governments seek balanced regulation that is transparent, accountable, proportionate and properly targeted."Source: AllAfrica
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