Knowledge Hub teams up with the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC in to strengthen tobacco control in Suriname

In early August 2023, Corné joined forces with the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC and WHO headquarters in a mission to Suriname to support the government advance its priority tobacco control policies. During the mission, the team encouraged the Surinamese government to strengthen mechanisms to enforce its current tobacco control measures and advised on the best approaches to strengthen its laws, including through an increase in excise taxes, the introduction of plain packaging, and the implementation Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC to protect against tobacco industry interference. In view of the widely recognized problem of illicit trade in the country, the mission team also encouraged Suriname to accede to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.

Suriname is a former Dutch colony in the North of South America, and has a population of about 600 000 people. The country imposes a uniform specific tax on cigarettes (and other tobacco products). What makes the country unique is that it sets the tax in US dollar, rather than in the Surinamese dollar. The country has experienced bouts of high inflation in the past, and is currently experiencing inflation of more than 50%. The depreciation of the Surinamese dollar means that the real value of the excise tax in local currency remains roughly the same over time.

A highlight of the mission was a briefing of MPs in the National Assembly. This briefing covered a lot of aspects related to tobacco control and lasted more than two hours. Of the 56 MPs, 23 attended the briefing session. This indicates real commitment to tobacco control.

Unfortunately, the country battles with a significant illicit trade problem, but the magnitude of the illicit tobacco market is subject to speculation and conjecture. The industry uses the illicit trade threat to not only argue against an increase in the excise tax on tobacco products, but to attempt to dilute and weaken the current tax system. For example, in the past two years the industry has proposed that the government should introduce a lower tax tier, ostensibly to attract illicit cigarettes into the legal sector of the economy. This would in all likelihood cause many of the currently-taxed cigarettes to shift to the lower tax tier. The industry also wants the government to set the excise tax in the local currency, rather than the US dollar. Should this happen, inflation will erode the real value of the tax in no time.

The message was that the current excise tax structure is good and serves the country well. However, the excise tax rate of 66 USD per 1000 cigarettes has remained unchanged since 2011, and should be increased. Further, because illicit trade in tobacco is recognized to be so prevalent in Suriname, there is much hesitancy to focus on increasing the excise tax. There is an urgent need to conduct an independent study on illicit trade in tobacco products in Suriname. This study would support the development of forthcoming measures to address the problem of illicit tobacco trade in the country, including Suriname’s movement towards accession to the Protocol. The Knowledge Hub indicated that they would be willing to supply technical support for such a study.

 The Secretariat of the WHO FCTC has been providing intensive support to Suriname since 2020 as part of its official development assistance initiative, the FCTC 2030 project. The mission was made up of staff from WHO headquarters, the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC, and the WHO FCTC Knowledge Hub on Tobacco Taxation.