It is a great pleasure for me to learn that Egypt is preparing the process to become a Party to the Protocol, and join the 16 countries that have already done so!
We in the Secretariat see every day how much the Protocol is needed: reports on efforts by the tobacco industry to take over the work on illicit trade reach us on a regular basis. Industry is promoting its own tracking and tracing system, Codentify, and is proposing agreements to countries by which the tobacco companies would manage the fight against illegal traffic. This is letting the fox into the henhouse! We cannot let this happen. The tool we have to prevent it is the Protocol, which puts control over combatting illegal traffic firmly in the hands of governments around the world. We need the Protocol to become law as soon as possible! Your efforts will help to make this happen!
I am also extremely happy that this video conference is taking place. We have been discussing this for quite some time. To have it actually happen today is no small achievement! It is a special pleasure for my colleagues and myself to be talking to representatives no less than 12 Ministries and other bodies that have a role in your country’s becoming a Party to the Protocol – if my count is correct!
Just by managing the necessary coordination to allow you all to be present today, and by putting together a well thought out and pertinent list of questions you want to discuss, you have already taken huge step towards becoming a Party! For this, I would like to congratulate you.
The experience of the Secretariat shows that for many countries, this coordination is the first great challenge they face in become a Party. Over the last year, we have organized a number of workshops in all WHO regions, where we always highlight the importance of inter-ministerial coordination. As you know, for the Protocol, this is even more important than for the Convention, given that the Protocol it not a public health treaty but truly a multisectoral one. When we talk to participants in the workshops, something we hear regularly is that the Ministry of Health finds it difficult to get the interest of all Ministries that need to be part of the effort, and to establish cooperation among them. It would be interesting to learn how Egypt has overcome this challenge, so other countries can learn from your experience.
I would also like to thank our colleagues from the WHO Regional Office and the WHO Country Office, Dr Fatimah El-Awa and Dr Randa Abu El Naga and all their colleagues, for their important role in making this happen. Colleagues at the Regional Office, through making available their video conferencing facilities, have made this a lot easier that it would have been otherwise!
Let us now turn to the purpose of this video conference: discussing the list of questions you have put together. From our side, we are looking forward to a lively discussion, and we will certainly try to answer your questions as best we can. I very much hope that today’s discussion will be helpful to you, and will contribute to your important work of making Egypt a Party to the Protocol – maybe the 17th one? I wish you an excellent discussion!
In addition to 3 representatives of the Central Department of World Trade Organization, this video conference counted with the participation of different Egyptian Authorities:
Egyptian Organization for Standards and Quality
Industrial Development Authority
General Organization for Export & Import Control
Egyptian Customs Authority
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Chemistry Administration
Ministry of health and Population
Central Administration of Environmental Affairs
Administration of Commercial Fraud Investigation
General Authority For Supply Commodities
World Health Organization / Egypt
Police Department of Supply and Internal Trade