Monitoring the tobacco industry

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The status of the illicit tobacco trade in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

This fact sheet shows how measuring illicit cigarette trade is methodologically challenging for many reasons. Such trade is an illegal activity and illegal traders are unlikely to record their activities. For security reasons, data on illicit trade are usually difficult to collect. Transnational organized crime markets are global in scale; therefore strategies to address them should also be global. The only real option for international cooperation is the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and its Protocol to combat the illicit trade in tobacco products.

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Fact sheet on illicit tobacco trade: Facts and figures on the illicit tobacco trade

This fact sheet shows how tobacco is an attractive product to smugglers because the tax on tobacco is a high proportion of price, thus evading tax by diverting tobacco products onto the illicit market (where sales are largely tax-free) creates a considerable profit margin for smugglers. This fact sheet shows that by eliminating or reducing this illicit trade would reduce consumption by increasing price, reducing premature deaths and increasing tax revenue for governments.

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Fact sheet on illicit tobacco trade: The tobacco industry's role

This fact sheet shows the evidence of the direct and indirect involvement of the tobacco industry in cigarette smuggling. This fact sheet states that evidence of complicity of the tobacco industry in cigarette smuggling extends to Lebanon and the Middle East, where the illicit tobacco trade has benefited from weak governance. Generally, this fact sheet illustrates how tobacco companies will take any opportunity to ensure that their product is in the market, smuggled or legitimate.

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Fact sheet on illicit tobacco trade: Immediate action in 10 steps

This fact sheet covers the 10 different steps that are suggested in order to combat the illicit trade and smuggling of tobacco. It states 10 comprehensive steps that should be taken in order to ensure that the problem of illicit tobacco trade can be effectively combated. These steps range from: convening a working group with officials, electing a char for this group, adopting a timetable with intermediate steps, gathering information, collecting data, commissioning a study on the issue as a whole, and reporting the findings.

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Fact sheet on illicit tobacco trade: Taxation and illicit trade

This fact sheet shows that the tobacco industry has claimed that high taxes drive smuggling and has sometimes argued successfully to governments that they should not increase tobacco tax because this will increase the level of smuggling. However, it states that although a high tax margin may provide the initial incentive to smuggle, data shows that that is not the only factor. Overall, this fact sheet illustrates the relationship between legal price and illicit trade in 2007 in low, middle and high income countries.

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Fact sheet on illicit tobacco trade: The Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products

This fact sheet shows how the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products is being negotiated as a supplementary treaty to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). This treaty is currently open for ratification, acceptance, approval or accession by the Parties to the WHO FCTC. The Protocol was adopted on 12 November 2012 and signed by 53 States and the European Union. The objective of the Protocol is to eliminate all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products.

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Fact sheet on illicit tobacco trade: Best practices around the world

This fact sheet based on data from Brazil and the United Kingdom show that policies against illicit trade can reduce illicit manufacturing or the illicit cigarette market. It also shows that some countries have successfully reduced illicit trade in tobacco products though strong and coordinated multilateral efforts. Generally, the article discusses the different means Brazil and the United Kingdom have taken in order to tackle the illicit cigarette market and manufacturing, as well as analyses the results.

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Tobacco industry tactics and plans to undermine tobacco control efforts

This document aims to expose the varied attempts used by tobacco companies to undermine the work of international organizations and governments in reducing the increase in tobacco use, an epidemic deadlier than history’s most destructive wars. Attention is not only being drawn to their attempts but also to the efforts and innovative initiatives being used to counter their tactics and pursue the goal of a healthy, smoke-free world.

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Tobacco industry activities in Pakistan: 1992–2002

Transnational tobacco companies have had a presence in Pakistan for over 50 years. This report describes the activities of transnational tobacco companies in Pakistan from 1992 to 2002 in five key areas: (a) the economics of tobacco; (b) smuggling of cigarettes into Pakistan; (c) the influence of the tobacco industry on science; (d) sports sponsorship by the tobacco industry; and (e) the effect of tobacco industry activities on health equity.

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Status of the illicit tobacco trade in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

This fact sheet discusses: the types of illicit tobacco trade; the global size of the problem; its impact on public health; illicit tobacco trade estimates in the Eastern Mediterranean Region; industry complicity in smuggling; and key interventions to curb illicit trade in tobacco. Experience in European countries over the last 10 years has shown that large-scale cigarette smuggling can be tackled. Controlling the supply chain should be one of the key interventions to curb international illicit trade in tobacco.

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Review of tobacco industry activities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: An introduction

This report reveals the tobacco industry’s vigorous targeting of the Middle East in an effort to increase its market share. The picture that emerges from the tobacco industry documents shows a powerful and influential industry operating with might in the Middle East, where public awareness of health-related issues is often low. “Review of tobacco industry activities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region” is a series of reports on the tactics and plans of the tobacco industry to undermine tobacco control efforts in the Region.

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The tobacco industry's tactics and plans to undermine control efforts in Egypt and North Africa

This report reveals the industry’s direct and indirect methods to undermine tobacco control in markets unbound by strict anti-smoking legislation, and where the states themselves are mega producers of tobacco, and own national tobacco companies. Egypt and North Africa remains an attractive region for international tobacco companies. “Review of tobacco industry activities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region” is a series of reports on the tactics and plans of the tobacco industry to undermine tobacco control efforts in the Region.

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The cigarette "transit" road to the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq: Illicit tobacco trade in the Middle East

This report reveals the many facets of tobacco smuggling in the Middle East and the contradicting assertions made by the tobacco industry. Tobacco smuggling has become a critical public health issue. It affects public health by bringing tobacco onto markets cheaply, making cigarettes more affordable and thus stimulating consumption. “Review of tobacco industry activities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region” is a series of reports on the tactics and plans of the tobacco industry to undermine tobacco control efforts in the Region.

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Voice of truth

“Review of tobacco industry activities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region” is a series of reports on the tactics and plans of the tobacco industry to undermine tobacco control efforts in the Region. This report provides a strong argument for combining efforts as the only way to tackle the tobacco problem. It calls for all decision-makers and tobacco control advocates to review and redirect their tobacco control policies in light of the nature of tobacco industry activities.

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Trust us: We're the tobacco industry

This is a concise guide to the millions of pages of confidential tobacco industry documents released through litigation in the United States. Quotes from the documents are organized by subject category with many links to the documents on internet sites. The documents reveal the truth about what was going on behind closed doors in the tobacco companies and how they said one thing in public, and something quite different in private.

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Tobacco industry documents: How to find them on the internet

"Tobacco and poverty" is a package developed for the World No Tobacco Day 2004 campaign. "Tobacco industry documents: How to find them on the internet" explains how the documents can be accessed and explored through the special websites run by the companies themselves. They include documents that explain what the companies knew about tobacco, when they knew it and what they concealed from the public about their dangerous product.

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Behind the scenes: The inherent contradiction behind big tobacco's corporate social responsibility

"Tobacco and poverty" is a package developed for the World No Tobacco Day 2004 campaign. "Behind the scenes: The inherent contradiction behind big tobacco’s corporate social responsibility" reveals the misleading claims made by the tobacco companies to redefine themselves as responsible corporate citizens. While claiming to have changed their marketing practices, the companies are actually increasing their marketing expenditures, often in ways most effective at reaching young people.

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The tobacco industry documents: What they are, what they tell us, and how to search them: A practical manual

This publication tells the story of how a powerful industry was forced by US courts to reveal its innermost secret documents, documents that explain what nine tobacco companies knew, when they knew it and what they concealed from the public about their dangerous product. It also summarizes the major findings in the documents discovered during the Minnesota trial and demonstrates how anyone can readily research the documents from several websites and the continuing value of these documents to journalists, public health workers, government officials and ordinary citizens.

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Coveting Iran: The infiltration and exploitation of Iran by global cigarette companies

This report reveals the importance placed on Iran by the entire tobacco industry, according to the industry’s internal documents obtained from court proceedings in the United States. The documents suggest that the multinational tobacco companies saw Iran not only as a market, but also as a conduit for the supply of contraband cigarettes to other countries.This report reveals the importance placed on Iran by the entire tobacco industry, according to the industry’s internal documents obtained from court proceedings in the United States.

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