TOBACCO: ILLICIT TRADE PROTOCOL Duty free ‘likely to be on agenda’ at first WHO ITP meet
The World Health Organisation’s Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco is set to come into force on 25 September with a key first meeting to decide the next stages of its implementation – and how it affects duty free – taking place in Geneva, Switzerland next month. Luke Barras-Hill reports.
D
F&TR faces another significant
Organization’s challenge
from the World Health Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and it isn’t one it is taking lightly. The first Meeting of the Parties
to the Protocol (MOP1) to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco (ITP) takes place in Geneva from 8-10 October. At the time this report was filed,
47 countries had ratified the protocol [although more are expected to follow – Ed], with those, plus as many as 100 observers, expected to attend the inaugural meeting.
Clarity needed While concrete details on the discussion itinerary were sketchy at press time, the meeting will ascertain the next steps in implementing measures of the protocol, with these applying equally to all retail channels, including DF&TR. According to the WHO, control
of the tobacco product supply chain through the implementation of a global tracking and tracing regime within five years of the protocol’s entry into force is one of the chief provisions. Other measures
include
comprehensive licensing, record keeping and ‘regulation of internet sales, duty free sales and international transit’. Unsurprisingly, DF&TR remains
concerned on how the measures will be implemented in practice. The European Travel Retail
Confederation (ETRC) and Duty Free World Council (DFWC) have stated on numerous occasions that while they fully support in principle the measures of the ITP, they refute in the strongest possible terms any allegations that the industry is complicit in illicit trade. In July, DFWC President Frank O’Connell condemned any attempt
SEPTEMBER 2018
to penalise legitimate and law abiding retailers, brands, airports and the maritime trade under such a pretext. This response has gained
momentum following the protocol’s enshrinement into law in the same month, as the necessary requirement for 40 countries to ratify it was met. Included in the WHO ITP is a
mandated study to be carried out within five years to address what the organisation labels as ‘the extent to which duty free contributes to illicit trade in tobacco products’. Updating TRBusiness, Keith Spinks,
Secretary General of the ETRC says: “Our goal in October at the meeting of the parties is to decide that the provisions of the protocol should be fully in effect before the research study into duty free sales is commissioned. We want all the parties to agree on the way that research is undertaken and in a way that is independent, with clear terms of reference.” Full industry participation in
the study remains crucial to rebut a scenario that could attempt to implicate – and ban – sales of duty free tobacco.
Five-year timeline “The one thing we need to remember is there is a five-year timeline for the track and trace system to be in place,” says Spinks. “It seems sensible to us to say if
it’s going to take five years to put it in place and you have five years before you have to undertake the research in duty free, why would you want to do it earlier? It seems illogical. “If the provisions mandated by
the protocol are put in place within the five-year time scale for track and trace we believe that when they do undertake the research study we will be able to clearly show that DF is not a source of illicit trade.” An ideal result, says the ETRC,
“If the provisions mandated by the protocol are put in place within the five-year time scale for track and trace we believe that when they do undertake the research study we will be able to clearly show that DF is not a source of illicit trade.”
Keith Spinks, Secretary General, ETRC
is a scenario where sufficient support from a number of regional delegations results in a message to the WHO that duty free should be taken off the discussion table for the time being until all the protocol measures are implemented. In the meantime, the ETRC
continues to stress important lines of communication with its country partners, customs officials and industry stakeholders to reinforce DF&TR’s position. “When the WHO talks about
implementing the other provisions they must recognise we are not the same as the High Street and there are different procedures in place in terms of the supply chain,” adds Spinks. «
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