Finale of the Illicit Trade in Developing Countries project
In partnership with The Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), REEP has led this 39 month project which started in November 2016, to investigate the relationship between tobacco tax increases and the illicit trade in cigarettes in four low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). For the BMJ Tobacco Control supplement, the REEP researchers and their country collaborators measured illicit trade in Georgia, South Africa, Mongolia, and the Gambia.
The supplement comes with an accompanying blog summarising the key highlights and results, now available online: https://blogs.bmj.com/tc/2020/10/15/illicit-tobacco-trade-not-exacerbated-by-tobacco-tax-increases-in-low-middle-income-countries-research-shows/. The blog discusses the conclusions of the newly published research and reveals that tobacco tax increases have little to do with illicit tobacco trade based on evidence from several low and middle-income countries.
The original research published in the supplement includes:
- Illicit tobacco trade in Georgia: prevalence and perceptions (January, 2019) by Megan Little, Hana Ross, George Bakhturidze, and Iago Kachkachishvili https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/29/Suppl_4/s227
- Illicit cigarette trade in South Africa: 2002–2017 (August, 2019) by Nicole Vellios, Corné van Walbeek, and Hana Ross https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/29/Suppl_4/s234
- Impact of tax increases on illicit cigarette trade in Mongolia (June, 2019) by Hana Ross, Nicole Vellios, Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh, Myadagmaa Enkhtsogt, and Laura Rossouw https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/29/Suppl_4/s249
- Consumption of legal and illegal cigarettes in the Gambia (May, 2019) by Zunda Chisha, Mohammed L Janneh, and Hana Ross https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/29/Suppl_4/s254
- The illicit cigarette market in six South African townships (March, 2020) by Kirsten van der Zee, Nicole Vellios, Corné van Walbeek, and Hana Ross https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/29/Suppl_4/s267
A dissemination webinar has been scheduled for next week, on Wednesday 21st October at 2pm SAST/8am EDT/1pm BST. Please register here.
