Reducing the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products in the ASEAN Region: A Review of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products

Abstract

In November 2012, the fifth session of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) adopted the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco. This paper examines the Protocol in the context of the illicit trade in tobacco products across South East Asia and highlights those areas of the Protocol which can be effective in reducing that illicit trade, and how the region could approach a coordinated implementation of those key provisions. Details of the current extent of illicit trade in the region, and of the main modus operandi of those active in that trade, are provided by the World Customs Organization’s (WCO) Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific (RILO AP). This sets the context from which the key elements of the Protocol are analysed for their potential value as mechanisms to directly address regional risks. The paper then examines the question of implementation and discusses those Articles of the Protocol which will require a degree of regional coordination to be fully effective. This regional examination also includes the need for some degree of standardised or consistent approach to implementation of the key Articles to eliminate ‘weak points’ in the regional supply chains for tobacco.