Tobacco supply limits: French MPs tackle parallel market

November 18, 2023

Par: National Committee Against Smoking

Dernière mise à jour: November 18, 2023

Temps de lecture: 4 minutes

Limites d’approvisionnement en tabac : des députés français s’attaquent au marché parallèle

A bill emanating from the Horizons group in the National Assembly wishes to open the European debate on the establishment of tobacco supply quotas, corresponding to the actual domestic consumption of the States, in order to limit the oversupply practices of the tobacco industry. Although having limited effects in France, the bill is supported by public health stakeholders, and opens a European debate on the circumvention practices of manufacturers.

Oversupply to circumvent public health policies

The bill, put forward by MP Frédéric Valletoux and eleven parliamentarians from the Horizons group, suggests that the tobacco industry, which supplies the States, should supply them in proportion to their actual domestic consumption (+5 % of the theoretical quantity of tobacco required). At present, cigarette manufacturers only supply 31.7 billion cigarettes to France, whereas the bill indicates that the supply should amount to 49 billion units to correspond to national consumption. Conversely, Luxembourg's supplies, estimated at 3 billion cigarettes per year, are five times higher than what domestic consumption requires. These oversupply practices allow manufacturers to circumvent the health policies of the States, by supplying the French border market with lightly taxed, and therefore cheaper, tobacco products.

A bill in line with the WHO Protocol on illicit trade

This limitation of the supply of tobacco to States is mentioned in the Protocol of the World Health Organization to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products, ratified by France and the European Union. Indeed, in its article 7.2, the Protocol requires that tobacco manufacturers are required to control "sales to their customers in order to ensure that the quantities are proportionate to the demand for these products on the market where they are intended to be sold or used." This provision is not the only one in the Protocol not to be respected. Indeed, it imposes in principle a total independence of the European system for monitoring and tracing tobacco products with regard to manufacturers. However, this independence is currently not guaranteed: articles 15 and 16 of the European directive on tobacco products currently allow the tobacco industry to choose for itself the companies intended to collect data on the storage and movements of tobacco products, but also the external auditors mandated to control them.

A call to MEPs to follow suit

As it stands, the bill can only set supply quotas for France. However, the twelve deputies are calling on European parliamentarians to take this measure to the European Union level, as part of the next revision of the Tobacco Products Directive. An exception, however, is for Andorra, which has not ratified the WHO Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, and is therefore not required to implement these supply quotas. With this in mind, the bill calls on France and Spain to enter into negotiations between the European Union and the principality, so that the latter agrees to put an end to oversupply practices. If the negotiations fail, the deputies are considering reducing by ten the limits on tobacco transportable from Andorra to France.

Keywords: Supply, Parallel markets, Valletoux, National Assembly, Horizons

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