Industry's 'most serious threat since 1999'
By Doug Newhouse, 23 April 2009

ETRC Secretary General Keith Spinks has described the new WHO threat to duty free tobacco as the most serious issue the industry has faced since the abolition of intra-EU duty free in 1999.

Speaking at the ACI Europe Trading Conference in Porto yesterday, Spinks said this follows attempts by anti-tobacco activists to link the duty free tobacco business with illicit trade, or smuggling.

While Spinks explained that however ridiculous the industry knows the claim is - considering the highly controlled environment in which duty free tobacco is sold - the fact is that wording that the global duty free tobacco trade should be abolished altogether will now almost certainly appear in the next text at the WHO meeting this June, which gives the industry just two months to ensure that their health ministers are aware of this.

He said that this text has come as a surprise to many and only recently the ETRC discovered that even European Commission officials were unaware of this development.

Spinks said that the priority now is to get this text dropped before the next stage of the WHO tobacco treaty is adopted. If this cannot be done then he said simple procedure will require any country that has signed up to the overall protocol to abolish duty free sales as part of their undertaking.

Spinks told delegates yesterday that any interested party that wants to know how to lobby their governments and ministries quickly should contact ETRC which has developed a detailed briefing paper and an outline letter that can be sent to governments to express their concerns and make the argument for retention.

Once again, Spinks emphasized that it is likely that many government ministries will not know about this new text and the ETRC's big fear is that health ministers will attend the next WHO meeting and duty free tobacco could end up being an unnecessary casualty if they are not prepared. Should this happen, Spinks added that there is every possibility that duty free alcohol will be the next target.

Some readers will remember well that it was in October 2008 that activists lobbied for the prohibition of all duty free tobacco sales, claiming that they contribute to illicit trade. At that time the proposal was supported by a number of countries - particularly in Asia and the Middle East. Any readers who would like further details, or the aforementioned documentation should contact Keith Spinks direct at: spinks.etrc@wanadoo.es

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