Dear President of the Meeting of the Parties,
dear Head of the Secretariat,
dear excellencies,
dear hosting country representatives,
dear Customs and other law enforcement authorities’ representatives,
dear ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured to have the possibility to address this special High-level Segment of the Third session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on behalf of the World Customs Organization. I want to express my sincere thanks to the Organizer, the Convention and the Protocol Secretariat, for inviting the WCO to address the global concern of illicit trade, and for the continued cooperation in relation to combating the illicit trade in tobacco and tobacco products.
I also honoured to address this meeting and the distinguished delegates in Panama, one of the most important hubs for global trade.
At the outset, I would also like to pass on a greeting from our Secretary-General, Ian Saunders, who thanks you for your invitation and wishes you a successful meeting.
The motto of your Third session of the Meeting of the Parties is “More parties, greater traceability, less illicit trade”. It is fully in line with the WCO approach for our activities which is “more participants, greater cooperation, better result”.
Our effort to achieve better results in our activities is reflected in the WCO’s theme of the year which is “Customs Engaging Traditional and New Partners with Purpose”, which was announced recently on the occasion of the International Customs Day on 26 January 2024 by our new Secretary General, Ian Saunders.
The theme of the year highlights WCO commitment to actively seek and establish new connections with a wider range of stakeholders, including financial institutions, environmental organizations, NGOs, and academic institutions, alongside strengthening and enhancing the relationships with our traditional partners. The focus of our collaboration this year is to align all our partnerships with Customs administrations' overarching mission and values to ensure that they contribute significantly to our objectives of trade facilitation, border security, and the resilience of global supply chains.
The World Health Organization and the Convention Secretariat are our long-standing traditional partners and fighting illicit trade in tobacco and tobacco products remains high priority of the World Customs Organization.
The WCO with its 185 Member Customs administrations, stays committed to supporting the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as well as the acceptance and implementation of the Protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products and thus to strengthen the control of tobacco and tobacco products.
The WCO developed effective tools for fighting illicit trade in tobacco products, such as regional and interregional operational activities LYNX, Global Customs enforcement Project on tobacco product smuggling, and a global closed expert group ExciseNet. Those tools enable the exchange of information and intelligence on seizures, modus operandi, new trends, criminal groups, suspicious consignments, and other relevant data related to illicit trade in tobacco and alcohol.
The WCO membership covers 98% of global trade, which means we are in a position to facilitate legitimate trade by ensuring better connectivity whilst also preventing criminal organizations from exploiting lax controls at borders by engaging in illicit trade.
Illicit trade continues to pose a significant threat to global security, economic stability and the well-being and health of our societies. In recent years, we have witnessed the increasing sophistication and adaptability of illicit trade networks. These networks exploit technological advancements, take advantage of the vulnerabilities in supply chains, and operate across borders with ease.
In this backdrop, I will now return to WCO theme of the year, engaging with traditional and new partners. In practice, illegal trade is not fixed in relation to commodities, methodologies and routings and in order to adapt and understand how illicit trade functions Customs must engage with non-traditional as well as traditional law enforcement partners.
Even when cooperating with our traditional law enforcement partners like UNODC, UNOCT, UNEP, INTERPOL, FATF, FIU in the fields such as environmental crime, drug crime ,Counterfeit medicines/vaccines, or the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, we also encountered smuggling of tobacco and tobacco products as part of operational activities in these areas.
In the global operation TINCAN, within our flagship WCO-UNODC Container Control Program, operational in nearly 100 countries, we have collaborated with new partners such as World Shipping Council and member Shipping companies. This has revealed that Transnational Organized criminal Syndicates are trying to perpetrate their illegal activities by infiltrating the supply chain and trusted traders. Drugs, weapons, ammunition, objects of cultural heritage, protected plants and animals, goods infringing IPR, alcohol, tobacco products, medicines and other medical products, food, waste, chemical precursors, other controlled goods and contrabands, and even cash are smuggled using this modus operandi.
Organized crime does not take into account borders, types of goods, mode of transport, and even the scale of illegal trade in order to make a profit. Our response is to make existing partnerships stronger and make new ones to help legal trade and fight against illegal trade.
I strongly believe that ‘together we can’ achieve this objective.
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate to organizers and host of this event, wish you a successful meeting, and assure you that the World Customs Organization and its Member Customs administrations will continue to contribute to the efficiency of the fight against illicit tobacco trafficking.