From: Guardian
UN protocol says mechanisms designed to counter illicit trade should not be delegated to industry, but monitors allege firms are involved
Sarah Boseley
Philip Morris International devised Condentify in the mid-2000s and subsequently tried to give it the impression of independence using front groups and third parties when a 2012 UN protocol said that tracking and tracing work should not be done by the industry itself. Photograph: Michaela Rehle/Reuters
The tobacco industry is working to secure control of a system to track the movement of cigarettes around the world, allegedly because it is complicit in the smuggling of its own products, according to a new research paper.
A detailed study from the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, using a range of sources including internal documents and whistleblower testimony, claims the industry is now going to elaborate lengths to control the global “track and trace” system that the United Nations has said must be put in place to counter smuggling.
