Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and thank you for joining us.
Greetings from the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC in Geneva.
The Convention Secretariat is pleased to offer this workshop on tobacco taxation that has been arranged through our FCTC 2030 programme of support to countries eligible to receive official
development assistance.
We have people joining us today from over 80 countries, from governments, NGOs and academia.
This workshop is being delivered in partnership with the WHO FCTC Knowledge Hub on Tobacco Taxation, based at the University of Cape Town’s School of Economics, a world-leading research institution on tobacco taxation.
I extend my thanks to Professor Corne van Walbeek and his team for leading the workshop.
Throughout the week, we will also welcome a range of other experts to help conduct the workshop, including from the World Health Organization and the United
Nations Development Programme.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – the WHO FCTC as we call it – is an international treaty developed in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic.
Today, the Convention includes more than 180 Parties, meaning that the WHO FCTC covers more than 90% of the world’s population.
But despite that fact, tobacco remains an enormous problem – both for public health and for wider sustainable development.
Each year, more than 8 million people die from tobacco use, and most tobacco-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, which are often targets of intensive tobacco industry interference and marketing.
Economic losses due to
health expenditures and lost productivity alone stand at US$ 1.4 trillion a year, equivalent to 1.8% of the global gross domestic product.
These deaths and these losses are entirely unnecessary and entirely preventable.
Tobacco use is also a major barrier to sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs.
Tobacco negatively impacts life in many different ways, across the social, environmental and economic dimensions of development.
We will hear more from the United Nations Development Programme during the workshop on these issues.
One of the most effective policy levers that we have to reduce demand for tobacco products is the effective use of price and tax measures.
Parties to the WHO FCTC recognize that price and tax measures are an important means for reducing tobacco
consumption by various segments of the population, in particular young people.
Effective tobacco tax policies not only contribute to improving public health by reducing tobacco use, but are also an important means of generating revenue for governments as stated in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.
The treaty obligations for governments in relation to tobacco taxes are contained in Article 6 of the WHO FCTC.
Implementation guidelines on Article 6 also have been adopted by Parties to the treaty to support governments in developing effective tobacco tax policies.
The guidelines have these six agreed “guiding principles” relating to the implementation of Article 6:
- Determining tobacco taxation policies is a sovereign right of Parties
- Effective tobacco taxes significantly reduce tobacco consumption and prevalence
- Effective tobacco taxes are an important source of revenue
- Tobacco taxes are economically efficient and reduce health inequalities
- Tobacco tax systems and administration should be efficient and effective, and
- Tobacco tax policies should be protected from vested interests.
Looking at implementation on effective tax policies around the world, WHO tells us that “in 2018, only 38 countries, covering 14% of the global population had sufficiently high tobacco taxes”.[1]
There is still quite a bit of work that governments can do to strengthen tax administration and increase tobacco taxation, all of which would bring substantial benefits.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how the global economy is inextricably linked to population health.
The message has never been louder than in the last two years that health is an investment – and not a cost – in accelerating growth and sustainable development.
Investing in health is crucial for economic recovery.
There is a lot that can be achieved with the resources and benefits that stronger tobacco taxation brings, as countries build back better in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And the Conference of the Parties, at its Ninth session, reminded us how important tobacco control is in the recovery process from the pandemic.
It is also important to be aware that the tobacco industry has a history of attempting to undermine public policies by influencing governments to limit tobacco taxation.
The tobacco industry does this by providing studies favourable to the industry and by overstating arguments regarding negative results from tax increases.
You will hear some of these arguments – as well as the counterarguments – during the workshop, and I hope this will help you strengthen your efforts to comply with the obligation of protecting public health policies from the commercial and
other vested interests of the tobacco industry.
Over the course of the week, I am confident that the workshop will illustrate how strong tobacco tax policies are a win for health, a win for the economy and a win for sustainable development.
Let me reiterate that the Convention Secretariat, the Knowledge Hub, WHO and UNDP are all here together to help you in your efforts to implement strong tobacco tax policies.
Finally, let me extend our appreciation to the United Kingdom, Norway and Australia as they are the donors that generously contribute to the FCTC 2030 project, and they have made this workshop possible.
Thank you again for joining the workshop.
We trust that you will find it useful in guiding your future work.