Opening remarks for MOP2

Mr Fernando Jácome, President of MOP, and my sister Adriana Blanco Marquizo, Head of the Secretariat,

Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,

It is an honour to be here and to join, for the first time, the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.

The Protocol is another vital tool for realizing the vision of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

I’m pleased to see that the number of Parties continues to rise, with the membership of Ghana. The Protocol grows stronger with the addition of each new Party.

I’m sorry I was not able to attend last week’s session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC, COP.

I understand that it was very successful, with a record number of Parties to the session.

I welcome your decision to launch an innovative investment fund to support implementation of the Convention.

I also welcome the Declaration on the WHO FCTC and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, proposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and co-sponsored by a broad group of Parties, stressing the need to protect public health policy from the tobacco industry.

While we still have some way to go before we end the pandemic, tobacco control measures must be part of the recovery, particularly increases in tobacco taxes.

If tobacco was a virus, it would long ago have been called a pandemic, and the world would marshal every resource to stop it.

But instead, it’s a multi-billion dollar business that profits from death and disease, imposes huge costs on health systems, and takes a massive economic toll in lost productivity.

Taxation is the single most effective tool for reducing tobacco use, but illicit trade in tobacco products undermines the effectiveness of tax policies.

Illicit tobacco products also exacerbate inequalities, because they are often cheaper and more accessible to vulnerable populations, such as young people.

Eliminating the illicit trade in tobacco products is an important goal for public health, with benefits in many other areas of development.

WHO estimates that eliminating illicit trade could reduce cigarette consumption by almost 2% and increase tax revenues by an average of 11%.

The global tax revenue potential from eliminating illicit trade in tobacco is about 47 billion US dollars annually.

The illicit tobacco trade stems from a wide range of causes, including weaknesses in governance and regulation, corruption, insufficient enforcement capacity, and organized crime networks.

Stopping it requires a comprehensive, multisectoral approach and international cooperation, which is given a legal basis in the Protocol. 

The Protocol is a powerful tool, but like any tool, its power is only realised if we use it.

I call on all Parties to Protocol, and development partners, to utilize its full potential, and work together to address this problem that knows no borders.

WHO remains committed to supporting all countries to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products, and to reduce tobacco use.

Earlier this year, we published an updated version of the WHO technical manual on tobacco tax policy and administration.

And we continue to work with countries to implement the measures of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The latest edition of the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic shows that even during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been progress on tobacco control.

5.3 billion people are now covered by one of the best practice tobacco control measures, including increased taxes on tobacco.

But we still have a long journey ahead, and tobacco companies will continue to use every trick in the book to defend the gigantic profits they make from peddling their deadly wares.

Thank you all for your commitment to eliminating illicit trade in tobacco, and for moving us one step closer to a tobacco-free future.

I thank you.