Volume 1
The tobacco industry and the health risks of smoking : second report / Health Committee.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Health Committee
- Date:
- 2000
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: The tobacco industry and the health risks of smoking : second report / Health Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![200. If UK staff resources are pitiful, those in the EU are utterly derisory. As the Secretary of State informed us, and as we saw for ourselves in Brussels, in Europe “there is just one official dealing with tobacco”, Mr John Ryan.*° In fact the situation is graver still, in that tobacco forms only one half of Mr Ryan’s portfolio. We met Mr Ryan on our visit to Brussels and were extremely impressed by his knowledge and commitment. But we do not see how the Health Commissioner can deliver his objective of reducing tobacco consumption with such scant resources. We recommend that the Secretary of State makes immediate and urgent representations in Brussels to create a far more substantial unit to combat the enormous resources of the tobacco industry. We believe that European policy is already hugely compromised by the CAP subsidy, and that unless appropriate resources go into tobacco control European action in this sphere will lack credibility. IV EXPANDING INTO NEW MARKETS 201. The main focus of the Committee’s inquiry has been the health effects of smoking on consumers in the United Kingdom who buy their cigarettes through the legal channels provided by tobacco companies and legitimate retailers. However, during the course of the inquiry evidence was also taken concerning the alleged activities of the tobacco companies in seeking to expand their markets through two methods: by manipulating the market in smuggled tobacco goods, both in the United Kingdom and internationally; and by increasing cigarette consumption in the developing world. Both issues are complex and require further investigation. They raise issues outside the remit of this Committee; however, both activities lead to increased cigarette consumption, especially amongst groups of consumers who otherwise would not have access to cigarettes. The increased incidence of death and illness, domestically and internationally, caused by such consumption is of direct interest to us and is why we proceed to outline the evidence presented to us and our concerns. Smuggling 202. BAT told us that 25 per cent or more of the tobacco products consumed in this country are smuggled into it.**’ Imperial’s evidence stated that “Cross-border trading now comprises at least 80 per cent of handrolling tobaccos smoked in the UK, and at least 20 per cent of cigarettes”.*** As well as the millions of pounds worth of revenue lost to the Government, we were told that the tobacco companies were damaged by this trade, and that they thought it was caused by differential duty rates, with the United Kingdom having higher rates than France and other continental countries. Mr Wilson, of Gallaher told us: “I deplore smuggling and we will do whatever we can in order to bring it to an end. It is not in our interests; it is not in the interests of government; it is certainly not in the interests of the Department of Health. It is making more and more low price cigarettes available in this country. It provides no control over the access of children to cigarettes and it is a direct consequence of the enormous disparity of duty rates”? This approach was echoed by the representatives of Philip Morris, BAT, Imperial and R J Reynolds giving evidence alongside Mr Wilson. Andorra 203. It had been claimed that one route used to smuggle cigarettes into the United Kingdom was through Andorra. In March 1999, a Sunday Times article alleged that “Andorra.... is the hub of Europe’s burgeoning smuggling trade ... with no tax, no VAT and almost no excise it 1s...a smuggler’s paradise. Between 1993 and 1997, the number of British-made cigarettes sent to Andorra ... increased 117-fold. The tiny country imported 3.1 billion cigarettes in 1997 - equivalent to every Andorran smoking seven packets a day ... [Smugglers] operate by setting up front companies in the principality or in the neighbouring countries that buy cigarettes from British manufacturers, which are exempt from duty because of their destination. They are then legally exported from Britain, stored in warehouses in Andorra and then smuggled back to the United Kingdom’”.**' HM Customs and Excise subsequently told the Home Affairs Committee that in 1996 cigarette exports from the United Kingdom to Andorra had risen very rapidly, but by late 1997 they had “tailed off just as Sunday Times, ‘Bootleg Britain’, 7.3.99, p.12.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32221083_0001_0065.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
