Dear Dr. Adriana Blanco Marquizo, Head of the WHO FCTC Secretariat,
dear Dr. Tedros, WHO Director-General,
dear Excellencies,
dear delegates and distinguished participants.
It is a pleasure and honor for me to address the second Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the restricted movement of people across the borders, but Customs has been busy ensuring the smooth cross-border movement of essential goods to keep the lifeline of economies.
In this connection, I appreciate a good cooperation with the WHO in identifying the list of the relevant medicines and vaccines to enable the WCO to come up with the corresponding HS list for the ease of Customs and trade to keep the supply chain open.
On the other hand, to protect the health of citizens, the WCO organized the global operations in the past two years to detect the fake medicines, vaccines and medical supplies at the borders, resulting in millions of seizures of the relevant falsified medical goods and producing good intelligence.
More generally, during the pandemic after the initial and short drop, the trade volume of both legitimate and illicit goods has continued to grow, including the tobacco products.
The WCO with its 183 Members are committed to fighting illicit tobacco trade by supporting the implementation of the WHO FCTC and the Protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products.
Even under the pandemic, many Customs officers around the world have continued to work at the borders to detect illicit tobacco smuggling to protect health of citizens and the state revenue.
They apply risk management technique based on receiving commercial data from business and through the exchange of information and they utilize technology, such as detecting equipment and scanners.
To assist these efforts, the WCO has been organizing regional and international operations to strengthen regional and international networks of Customs cooperation, including the successful ones in the Asia Pacific and Balkan region, carried out just before the pandemic, and an ongoing operation within the regions of Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
In the same vein, the WCO created a global closed virtual expert group called TobaccoNet, recently transformed into ExciseNet to include other high excise goods such as alcohol goods, which would facilitate the exchange of information and intelligence on seizures and suspicious consignments, as well as new smuggling trends including modus operandi and criminal groups.
The WCO also constantly reviews its Customs Risk Management Compendium and other guidance documents to help Customs fight against commercial fraud, including tobacco products.
In the meantime, the WCO has been working with the WHO on Framework Convention on Tobacco Control even before the establishment of the WHO FCTC Secretariat which also serves as the Protocol Secretariat.
Following the MoU on Co-operation between the WCO and the WHO, signed in July 2002 that includes cooperation in combating illicit tobacco trade, the WCO has been supporting the work of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft and negotiate a protocol on illicit trade in tobacco products.
After the adoption of the Protocol by the COP5, I signed a Statement of Intent with the WHO FCTC Secretariat in March 2014 to further strengthen cooperation between the two organizations.
In concrete, the representatives of the FCTC Secretariat were invited to the WCO Enforcement Committee to make presentation on the specific provisions of the Protocol related to Customs including establishing a tracking and tracing system, law enforcement measures, and international cooperation.
In turn, the WCO provided the relevant Customs expertise, indispensable for the implementation of the Protocol and urged its members to make contributions to the Protocol at the national level.
To conclude, I would like to congratulate to organizers of this event, wish you all a successful meeting, and assure you that the WCO will continue to contribute to fighting the illicit tobacco trade to support the main aim of the Protocol as its observer.
Thank you.