allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Effective Panacea to Illicit Tobacco Trade (1) (Page 1 of 2)

It is becoming increasingly clear that to chip away at the might of well-oiled underground illicit trade networks, especially networks, governments and international agencies need to brainstorm and pull resources together.

No single national government or international agency, however sophisticated and powerful it may be, can single-handedly confront the ills of illicit trade. And the reason is simple: illicit trade is a trans-border crime whose effectiveness lies in the potency of its toxic tentacles in various parts of the world. So routing it out in one country or even a number of countries is not sufficient to uproot such practices entirely.

For example, the Framework Convention Alliance rightly noted that, illicit trade is a major international problem that requires an international solution. And to reduce the consumption of risk prone products like alcohol and tobacco and save lives, combat organised crime as well as recoup billions of dollars in lost government revenue. How can Nigeria participate in the global initiatives to halt the growth and development of illicit trade? There is no gainsaying the fact that illegal trade in all its ramifications drains the life of nations in both literal and metaphorical terms. During a recent international conference on illicit tobacco trade for example, the World Health Organisation said illicit trade in tobacco products contributes to the global dcath and disease burden of many nations, especially in the developing world and contributes to the global rise in tobacco consumption by making cigarettes cheaper and more accessible, especially to people who are price sensitive and least able to afford health care, such as young people and the poor. It also allows cigarettes to be sold as singles instead of in packs, for instance, or in unregulated outlets that makes it more accessible to underage smokers.

Being a transnational problem, illicit trade cannot be therefore be effectively addressed without international cooperation and action. The recognition of this fact has inspired governments to join public health agencies and international NGOs in calling for stronger measures to combat such unwholesome practice. Smuggled cigarettes account for between 6 percent and 8.5 percent of global consumption, according to the World Bank. The figures are higher for developing countries like Nigeria. And nearly a fifth of all cigarette production is exported. Of that amount, almost one-third (30 percent) - about 355 billion cigarettes a year - finds its way into the contraband market. Alarmed by this grim statistics, 191 member states of the World Health Organization have initiated negotiations on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Four negotiating sessions have been held so far, starting in October 2000. This is the first time that the treaty-making clause in the WHO's constitution has been invoked to address a public helath issue.Among the topics covered by the FCTC are tobacco advertising and sponsorship, smoke-free public places, tobacco taxation, tobaccoproduct labeling, education and research and illicit trade in tobacco products.

Similarly, at the recent International Conference on Illicit Tobacco Trade (lCITT) organised by the United States Agency for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (AATF), illicit trade in tobacco products was the main focus. The international conference held in New York, developed approaches and recommendations on effective measures or best practices to address the problem. The recommendations at the conference formed the core of the agenda of the negotiating session on the FCTC held in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2002. At the Geneva meeting, one of the 10 key issues for global tobacco control and the FCTC Framework Convention Alliance was smuggling.

Noting that one in three internationally traded cigarettes enters the black market, the convention agreed that it was essential to stop this by introducing effective security measures in the distribution system. Customs authorities, it said, must be able to trace the movement of tobacco products retrospectively to identify where diversion to the black market occurred. While pointing out that there were about 10,000 wholesale tobacco traders in the world, the convention suggested that these could be built into a licensed system in which they would record movements of tobacco products by scanning pack markings, adding that technology is available to do this at less than USSO.02 per pack. Another transnational initiative is the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), an international alliance of more than 300 non-governmental organisations. The FCA urges countries to negotiate a strong treaty that can help reduce tobacco use and its health and financial consequences around the world.

Apart from the health risks associated with illicit tobacco, governments are also losing huge tax revenues from untaxed products that proliferate in the black market. It has been estimated that illicit trade accounted for 10.7 percent of global cigarette sales in 2006, or about 600 billion cigarettes amounting to about S"L'S 50 billion loss to govemments in tax revenue each year. This is greater than the GDPs of two-thirds of the world's countries. In addition to being a public health problem and a financial problem, the illicit tobacco trade is also a law and order problem, and even a threat to intemational security. There is evidence that the illicit tobacco trade is carried out by transnational criminal groups. Again on February 11, 2008 more than 150 nations launched negotiations on an intemational treaty to combat the illicit trade in tobacco products. The illicit trade treaty is being negotiated as a supplementary treaty, or protocol, to the existing World Health Organization tobacco control treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which became intemationallaw in February 2005. The WHO FCTC also obligates ratifying nations to implement effective measures to reduce tobacco use, strong health warnings, laws requiring smoke-free workpladces and public places, and bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

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