A total of 176 countries on Monday adopted what WHO Director-General Margaret Chan called a ``game-changing’’ global agreement to combat illegal tobacco trade.
The pact was ratified at a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, at the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The agreement came into force in 2005.
``The treaty envisages an international tracking system which aims to halt the smuggling and counterfeiting of tobacco products, a trade which accounts for 11 per cent of the total tobacco market.
``This would cost governments an estimated 40 billion dollars in lost tax revenue,’’ the WHO said in a statement.
The statement quoted Chan as describing the pact a major step towards for ``eliminating a very sophisticated criminal activity’’.
The statement said the protocol gives signatory states five years to establish a tracking and tracing mechanism on cigarettes and every other tobacco product.
The system will use non-removable markings and will be coordinated globally to detect illegal tobacco trading.
``Agents, suppliers and tobacco manufacturers will all have to be licensed. Manufacturers will have to carry out checks on customers to ensure they are genuine or if they have associations with criminal organisations,’’ it noted.
The WHO chief also lambasted the tobacco industry for seeking to ``maintain its profits and kill at the same time’’, and accused it of complicity in the illicit tobacco trade.
``It is a ruthless industry that quite literally cannot afford to lose. It behaves like a corrosive substance that can eat and slip through any cracks or fissures in the armour of our defences,’’ she said.
Monday's pact marks a departure for the FCTC, whose main focus so far has been on curbing demand for tobacco products rather than controlling the supply chain.
The Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), which groups around 300 non-government organisations working for tobacco control, said it was ``excited’’ by the adoption of the pact, which required four years of intense negotiations.
``The illicit trade in tobacco feeds the worldwide tobacco epidemic by flooding markets with cheap products and keeping tobacco taxes low,’’ FCA director Laurence Huber said.
The six-day FCTC meeting in the South Korean capital will also review guidelines on tax measures to reduce tobacco demand, recommendations on promoting alternatives to tobacco growing, and regulation of smokeless tobacco products like e-cigarettes.
Meanwhile, one of the leading tobacco companies, Philip Morris International, has applauded WHO for passing the first international protocol to fight the illegal trade in tobacco and expressed its support for the measure.
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