How can cigarette smuggling be reduced?
Cigarette smuggling is getting out of control. Around one third of global exports are estimated to disappear into the contraband market. But the only real way to stop cigarette smuggling is for a convention, similar to that used to try to control international arms trade, suggest Luk Joossens and Martin Raw in this week's BMJ.
They report that cigarette smuggling occurs in all parts of the world - even in regions were taxes are low - and believe that the true beneficiaries of smuggling are the tobacco manufacturers themselves.
The tobacco industry argues that smuggling is the result of large price differences between countries where cigarettes are expensive, and those where they are cheap, creating a market for smuggled cigarettes in the 'expensive' countries. However, say the authors, Western Europe has the highest prices in the world, but less smuggling than in other regions.
The tobacco industry's solution - to reduce taxes - would thus be disastrous, since it doesn't address the real cause of smuggling - large scale fraud rather than "market forces". In Canada, where taxes were reduced because of concern about smuggling, the result was increased consumption and a fall in tax revenue.
Lessons from other countries show that the solution to combat smuggling is not to decrease taxes, but to reduce the supply of illegal cigarettes at the international level, say the authors. For instance, in 1997, close collaboration between the authorities in Spain, France, Britain, Ireland and Andorra successfully reduced the supply of smuggled cigarettes from Andorra.
The authors argue that only a protocol on tobacco smuggling, as part of an international convention on tobacco control, will address the true cause of smuggling. Given the clear incentive of the tobacco industry to make cigarettes available for smuggling, a real crackdown on smuggling will require control of cigarette transit at international level, they conclude, much like arms control.
Contacts:
Luk Joossens, Consultant, International Union Against Cancer, Brussels, Belgium
Email: joossens@globalink.org
Martin Raw, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Guy's King's and St Thomas's School of Medicine, University of London, UK
Email: martin@rawdata.demon.co.uk