The Briefing was hosted by Jules Maaten MEP and a focus was the imminent meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention taking place in Bangkok. A presentation was given by Dr. Ogwell of the Kenyan Ministry of Health on the relevance of the Convention to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in low and middle income countries. Other presentations, by representatives from the Convention Secretariat and the EU anti-fraud office OLAF, focused on the Protocol to the Convention combating the illicit and counterfeit trade in cigarettes currently being negotiated.
An interesting element of the presentations on the illicit trade in cigarettes were the estimates given by the OLAF representing for the loss of tax and customs revenue caused by a trade in which cigarette manufacturers had in the past been at least aware of and potentially complicit. The revenues generated from the trade are now so high that techniques usually confined to hard drug smuggling were now being observed in cigarette smuggling.
Frazer Goodwin of EPHA underscored the central need to strengthen health systems to achieve the health MDGs. He highlighted how undermined this goal was by the disease burden from burgeoning tobacco use across the developing world. Europe can contribute to the attainment of the health MDGs in a variety of ways, including strong support for full application of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The meeting was summarised and closed by Frithjof Schmidt MEP, Vice Chair of the Parliaments Development Committee.
