HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREMAMS

HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES BUREAU

OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREMAMS

                Top officials from the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) told reporters that the first-ever International Conference on Illicit Tobacco Trade, which concluded today at Headquarters, had yielded some extremely productive deliberations on best practices to prevent and counter the worldwide illicit tobacco trade.

Arthur Libertucci, Assistant Director of the ATF's Office of Alcohol and Tobacco and Co-Chair of the Conference, said participating international law enforcement and public health officials had "rolled up their sleeves" and come up with a number of solid recommendations related to licensing, product tracing, and information sharing.  A few grass-roots health-care advocates sharing candid and insightful comments on their efforts to investigate and prevent tobacco smuggling had joined those officials.

He said the work of some 250 representatives from the 145 World Health Organization (WHO) member States taking part in the three-day event -- which opened on 30 July -- would be summarized in a report to be presented to the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), set to take place in Geneva this October.  The report of the Conference would also serve as a reference for national or State-level actions initiated by world governments.

Mr. Libertucci was joined at the briefing by Robert Tobiassen, ATF Associate Chief Council and Vice-Chairman of Legal Affairs for the Conference, who added that the FCTC negotiations were steered primarily by government health officials working to address the problem of illicit tobacco trade.  But what the ATF had tried to do this week was bring together the "real experts" -- law enforcement, customs officials, and tax and revenue administrators living with tobacco smuggling on a daily basis -- in order to articulate the best practices.

To that end, Mr. Libertucci said that during the Conference, two ideas had been extensively discussed:  the need to monitor international tobacco trade to ensure legitimate distribution channels, and the collection of legal revenues to ensure governments the funds to carry out national public health programmes.  "I would classify this week's events as extremely successful", he added.  "Delegates shared diverse experiences that provided the opportunity to build networks so they could all continue working together."

It was his hope that the expert observations made by law enforcement officials from developed countries could help their counterparts in the developing world find new ways to deal with issues related to tobacco smuggling.  So, one of the Conference's immediate – and, hopefully, enduring -- benefits had been the encouragement of broad and interactive relationships among a diverse group of worldwide governments, all working to develop an effective response to illicit trafficking in tobacco products.

Responding to a question, he said some of the best practices that could perhaps help governments -- particularly those in underdeveloped and least developed countries -- enhance their regulatory and enforcement efforts included developing licensing schemes which regulated the sale and production of tobacco products, improvements that could be made in record keeping, and labelling and packaging strategies so that products could be traced and trafficking routes identified.

Responding to several questions about the role cigarette companies were playing in the overall negotiation process and the Conference itself,

Mr. Libertucci said the ATF had attempted to make the work of the Conference as open and transparent as possible.  While the deliberations of the government officials had been private, the report of the Conference would be made available to all observers.  Otherwise, he added, the ATF's jurisdiction was to collect taxes from the companies and regulate their activities.  As far as he knew, their participation in the Conference had been very limited.

As for the allegations by many non-governmental organizations that cigarette companies had turned a blind eye to tobacco smuggling, Mr. Libertucci said the Conference had touched on that issue.  He could not say whether any consensus had emerged as to culpability, but certainly some delegations had expressed that view.  Others had pointed out the value of information that could be collected from tobacco companies in efforts to combat illicit trade, which included not just counterfeit tobacco products but contraband, as well. 

He added that some tobacco companies had been willing to provide proprietary information to law enforcement officials, so that those contraband or counterfeit products could be readily identified in the marketplace.  He said it was difficult to measure the amount of counterfeit product on the market, but through the results of the Conference, he hoped there would be more international cooperation so that world governments could get a handle on the magnitude of the problem, particularly as it affected tax collection or quality control.  He fully expected that the October round of FCTC discussions would take up the issue at some length.

Mr. Libertucci said the overall aim of the ATF was to reduce illicit tobacco trade.  That objective was not at odds with the larger objectives of public health officials.  Mr. Tobiassen added that, as illicit trade was reduced, governments were able to better carry out public health policies because they had additional revenues to fund those policies, and by restricting distribution to legitimate channels, youth access could be controlled.  "We see it as a win-win situation", he said.

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