The World Conference on Tobacco or Health recently hosted a virtual summit, in partnership with – among others – the World Health Organisation, WHO FCTC Secretariat and Framework Convention Alliance.

Four countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam – could have collected an additional $4.81 billion in tax revenue over the last two years and prevented more than 1.3 million premature deaths, if they had had an effective tobacco tax policy in place, claims a recent study released by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).

Malta is showing the world how to address the complex problem of illicit tobacco – ie. by adopting a steady and consistent approach.

In this article, we examine the illicit tobacco trade in Australia and how it is continuing to evolve. We look at what continues to drive smokers to seek illicit tobacco, but also what criminal networks did when looking to source and traffic illicit tobacco products into Australia during the pandemic.

KPMG’s annual study of the illicit trade in tobacco in Europe is a robust and well-established study of illicit trade trends in Europe since its inception in 2006.

In April, Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Industry and Trade welcomed a delegation of public and private sector officials from its West African neighbour Mali, who were seeking to draw inspiration from Burkina Faso’s experience in tobacco product traceability.

In France and the UK, there have been recent news stories of cigarette packs identified in the market as illicit because they were all carrying the same ID number (when this number should in fact be unique to each pack). What was not mentioned in these reports, however, was whether or not the packs were carrying authentication labels, which they are obliged to do under the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD).

According to media website dawn.com, there are gaps in the picture with regard to The World Health Organisation’s award to Pakistan for its anti-tobacco efforts.

Europol’s Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2021 (SOCTA-21) provides a detailed account of the dramatic impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on organized crime, illicit markets in general and the illicit tobacco market in the EU in particular.

It’s not often that we hear members of the tobacco industry complaining that a tax authority is not issuing tax stamps – in fact, the complaints are usually because the opposite is true.