Tactics range from the exploitation of farmers and use of child labour to threats and intimidation, and a “continent-spanning spy network”. All to pursue BAT’s own commercial goals.

Examples from across the region feature on an illustrative map, and below are links to further reading which provide a comprehensive understanding of the company’s activities in Africa.

Sabotage, Deceit and Duplicity: British American Tobacco Uncovered

Significant new reports and briefings can be found on the BAT Uncovered micro-site of TCRG’s partner organisation STOP at exposetobacco.org

These cover new allegations of bribery across Africa, and dirty tricks in South Africa.

Briefing papers on BAT’s alleged capture of state agencies, potential complicity in smuggling in South Africa and alleged connection to an attempted bribery conspiracy in Zimbabwe will be published on this site in due course.

Buying Influence and Advantage in Africa

Analysis of whistleblower documents by the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) at the University of Bath found a “large number of questionable payments” made by BAT over a five-year period.  This huge international corporation used these payments to influence policy and undermine competing tobacco companies, both international and local.

• Read the report summary: Buying Influence and Advantage in Africa: An Analysis of British American Tobacco’s Questionable Payments

BAT made payments impacting ten countries in East and Central Africa. They were made to politicians and civil servants, staff of competitor companies, journalists, farmers and others involved in positions of potential influence.  The use of these payments appeared to be systematized and supported by senior staff, including in BAT’s London office.

The full report details the payments and describes the serious consequences of this unethical business activity. It also suggests that governments globally should more closely examine BAT’s behaviour.

• Read the full report: “Unlawful Bribes?”: A documentary analysis showing British American Tobacco’s use of payments to secure policy and competitive advantage in Africa¹

The leaked source documents are publicly available in the UCSF Industry Documents Library Africa Collection (University of California, San Francisco).

Dirty Tricks in South Africa

In the report on British American Tobacco in South Africa, TCRG researchers explain how BAT has fought to maintain its dominance of this key market over decades, in the face of increased competition and growing illicit trade. The report describes how the company has used “any means necessary” to hold its position, including paying another company to run a “massive secret surveillance and informant network in Southern Africa on behalf of BAT”.

The report details BAT’s use of third party service providers, allegedly overseen and run by senior operatives at BAT’s London headquarters.  It also explains how BAT is “yet to face meaningful consequences for its actions either in the region or at home in the U.K.” after the U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) dropped its five-year investigation in January 2021.

BAT has repeatedly denied accusations of corporate espionage, corruption and law-breaking,² but new analysis of leaked documents raises serious questions about BAT’s activities in South Africa, particularly in relation to tobacco smuggling and tax evasion.

The research by the TCRG was carried out in collaboration with BBC’s Panorama, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Organized Crime and Reporting Project.

• Read the report: British American Tobacco in South Africa: Any Means Necessary

See also:

The BBC’s Panorama documentary programme, broadcast on 13 September 2021, which “unveils new revelations about the corrupt practices deployed by one of Britain’s biggest companies.”³

• Watch ‘Dirty Secrets of the Cigarette Business’ (BBC iPlayer, UK only, registration required)
• Watch on BBC World Saturday 18 September 2021 (Africa link, switch to other regions at the bottom of the page, note times are GMT)

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Read: Smoke Screen: BAT’s agents brokered bribe proposal⁴
• Listen: Smoke Screen: Love, bribes, lies and spies in the tobacco industry

Victoria Hollingsworth tells the true story of corrupt practices behind the scenes at British American Tobacco. Hear from the very people caught up in this world as the Bureau sinks deep into the dirty underbelly of the tobacco industry in South Africa.

BAT in Africa: A History of Double Standards

TobaccoTactics details the history of BAT’s double standards, exposing a difference between its stated goals and principles, and its activities in low and middle-income African countries.  It includes links to earlier allegations against BAT, featured in a 2015 Panorama programme and media coverage at the time.

• See British American Tobacco in Africa: A History Double Standards

This page brings the story up to date…

• See British American Tobacco in Africa: Continuing Allegations of Misbehaviour

References

The post The BAT Files: How British American Tobacco Bought Influence in Africa appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Here we look at the some of the research published since then which have added to our understanding of the company.

For more details on the pages published by Tobacco Tactics on British American Tobacco in Africa visit The BAT Files.

Introduction

In 2015, the BBC’s Panorama programme used documents from an industry whistleblower to highlight allegations of alleged bribery by British American Tobacco.

According to the evidence supplied by former BAT employee Paul Hopkins, the firm allegedly arranged bribes totalling US$26,000 for officials in Rwanda, Burundi and Comoros Islands. BAT insisted it conducted its business with honesty, integrity and transparency.

Even though BAT and those featured in the program issued denials about the allegations, in 2015 the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) began investigating, leading to a formal criminal investigation into BAT and associated persons in 2017.

In January 2021 the SFO concluded: “Following extensive investigation and a comprehensive review of the available evidence, the SFO has concluded its investigation into British American Tobacco, its subsidiaries and associated persons. The evidence in this case did not meet the evidential test for prosecution as defined in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.”

The SFO added that it would “continue to offer assistance to the ongoing investigations of other law enforcement partners. We thank our international law enforcement partners, and in particular the Kenyan Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), for their assistance in the SFO’s investigation.”⁵

Document analysis

In 2021, new research was published adding to the understanding of BAT’s operations in Africa. Panorama followed up on its 2015 programme, which mainly focussed on East and Central Africa, with a new investigation into operations in Southern Africa. ⁶ Alongside this STOP published its own reports.

The Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath also did a deeper analysis of the Hopkins documents and a second set of documents disclosed from a court case in Uganda involving former BAT employee Solomon Muyita. Both Hopkins and Muyita had invoked BAT’s whistleblower policy.^{78 9}

BAT payments

This analysis looked at 236 payments totalling US$601,502 made between July 2008 and May 2013 to dozens of people including politicians, civil servants, journalists, farmers and staff at competitor companies.

BAT made payments impacting 10 countries Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Payments took multiple forms including hand-delivered cash, bank wire transfers, spending money, cars, campaign donations, per diems, and plane tickets.

According to the research, the payments were used for two broad purposes. To obtain information and influence policy and to gather information and undermine competitors. The authors conclude:

“The available evidence suggests BAT’s use of payments in Africa was extensive, systematised, and supported at a high level within parts of the company. Payments were used to buy political and competitive advantage.”¹⁰

According to the analysis of the documents sets, the information suggests payments were a routine part of BAT’s business practices in Africa, with senior staff aware of the practice. Third party companies, referred to as “service providers”, were contracted to undertake consultancy services for BAT to make the payments.

BAT’s official policy on corruption as stated on its website is: “Corruption causes distortion in markets and harms economic, social and political development, particularly in developing countries. Our Standards of Business Conduct make clear that it is wholly unacceptable for our companies and employees to be involved or implicated in any way in corrupt practice.”¹¹

Influencing policy

As the original research in 2015 revealed, BAT had been aiming to influence policy changes in several countries. The analysis of these two document sets confirmed and expanded this area of concern.

Attempts were made to frustrate the passing of legislation based on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Burundi, Comoros, Rwanda and Uganda. Civil servants and politicians in particular were targeted through the payments. As a result tobacco control legislation in three of the countries is still not compliant with the FCTC while Uganda had a bitter four-year battle to pass its Tobacco Control Act.

The payments were also used to undermine efforts to control tobacco smuggling. In Kenya, BAT campaigned to have its own system in place for tracking tobacco products rather than an independent one as mandated by the Illicit Trade Protocol.¹⁰

Sabotaging competitors

BAT has a very strong market position in Africa and looks to maintain and expand that position. As such payments appear linked to gaining information on competitors – these include Mastermind Tobacco Kenya, Continental Tobacco Uganda and Leaf Tobacco & Commodities Uganda. It also targeted international rival Japan Tobacco International (JTI) which was operating in Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic Congo.

Tactics used included funding a fake trade union to foment labour unrest, pay for sources inside companies and take advantage of complaints to regulators.

Other examples of payments

The evidence that BAT used payments to influence policy and damage competitors between over a number of years is not the first time that a tobacco company has been accused of such activity.

Evidence from Australia suggests that the tobacco industry may have used bribery in the 1970s to help bring down a minority Tasmanian government attempting to impose a tobacco tax, although the police inquiry cleared the politician in question.¹² A 2000 court case brought by the European Union and its member states accused tobacco companies of bribing public officials as part of its global scheme to smuggle cigarettes.¹³¹⁴ Maithripala Sirisena who later became the President of Sri Lanka in 2015, alleged that, when trying to introduce large pictorial health warnings as Health Minister, BAT tried to bribe him, although this was “categorically denied” by the company.¹⁵

The findings also align with widespread evidence from South Africa of payments to monitor and undermine competitors.

Tobacco smuggling in Mali

While the two document sets from the whistleblowers provided evidence of wide-ranging payments across many countries, another investigation in 2021 uncovered further concerns.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) had access to internal BAT documents as well as trade data and interviews with participants to document activities in the country.¹⁶. It found that BAT took advantage of the precarious military situation and over-supplied the country with cigarettes. In doing so this keeps BAT brands in circulation; but also generates profits for jihadists and militias.

“This is their playground,” Hana Ross, a University of Cape Town economist who researches tobacco, said of the industry. “They know they can get away with stuff. It’s much easier to bribe. It’s much easier to cheat the system,’’ she said. “Governments here are generally weak. This is where they do things that they don’t dare to do in Europe anymore.”¹⁶

A spokesperson for BAT said: “At BAT, we have established anti-illicit trade teams operating at global and local levels. We also have robust policies and procedures in place to fight this issue and fully support regulators, governments and international organizations in seeking to eliminate all forms of illicit trade.”

Further reading

BAT Uncovered

British American Tobacco in South Africa: Any Means Necessary

Buying Influence and Advantage in Africa: An Analysis of British American Tobacco’s Questionable Payments

Tobacco Tactics Resources

The BAT Files

British American Tobacco: Dirty Deeds in Africa

References

The post British American Tobacco in Africa: Continuing Allegations of Misbehaviour appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Background

In 2020, Sudan had a population of 43 million people.¹⁷ The life expectancy for Sudanese men that year was 65.3 years and for women, 67.2 years.¹⁸ Sudan is classified by the World Bank as a low-income country.¹⁹

Tobacco Use in Sudan

In 2016, 15.6% of Sudanese adults were tobacco users. Tobacco use in Sudan is significantly higher for men (27.9%) than women (0.8%). Youth tobacco use (ages 13-15 years old) is 11.7% overall. This also reflects a gender divide, with 14.5% of boys versus 7.3% of girls using tobacco.²⁰

Product use is fairly evenly divided between smoked (9.6%) and smokeless (7.9%) tobacco in adults. Youth tobacco use leans more heavily towards smoked (8.3%) than smokeless (4.9%) products.²⁰

Tobacco in Sudan

The Sudanese cigarette market was estimated to have sold 5,146.1 million sticks and be worth US$355.7 million in 2020 by Euromonitor International. The smoking pipe tobacco market was worth US$92.4 million in 2019.²¹

British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) both operate in the country. BAT operates through the Blue Nile Cigarette Company which it acquired in 2016.²² JTI operates through the Haggar Cigarette and Tobacco Factory (HCTF) which it acquired in 2011.²³²⁴ Euromonitor does not have market share data available for Sudan.

Roadmap to Tobacco Control

Sudan signed the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in June 2004 and ratified it in October 2005.

As of 2021, Sudan has implemented bans on all forms of direct advertising of tobacco products across all forms of media (TV, radio, internet, print media), as well as promotional discounts and free distribution. It also mandates health warning covering 30% of the front of all tobacco products and implements a 73.4% ad-valorem tax on cigarettes. ²⁵

In April 2021, Sudan was joined by 14 other countries from the Eastern Mediterranean Region in banning the use of waterpipes in all indoor and outdoor public places ²⁵ Apart from this ban, Sudan does not, have any other smoke free places legislation. It also does not ban tobacco product display at point-of-sale or corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.²⁰ Though nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and some cessation services are offered, neither are cost-covered by the government.²⁶

Up to date information on tobacco control legislation around the world can be found on the Tobacco Control Laws website (published by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids). You can search litigation by country, tobacco control measure, or type of legal action. The website also contains analysis and assessment of FCTC compliance, and policy factsheets. Parties to the WHO FCTC submit regular FCTC COP reports detailing their progress in implementing the treaty, which are presented in the FCTC Implementation database. Further information on countries’ progress in implementing the WHO recommended MPOWER measures can be found in the WHO reports on the global tobacco epidemic, a serious of biennial reports detailing status and compliance.

Tobacco Industry Interference

In 2011, JTI announced that it had acquired Haggar Cigarette & Tobacco Factory Ltd (HCTF) in both Sudan and South Sudan.²⁷ In June 2020, Alarabiya-AlSudan news agency reported that Anis George Haggar, Chairman and majority shareholder of the Haggar Group,²⁸ was selected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Sudan. ²⁹[ In September 2020, the Bank added tobacco products to its list of “essential” products during the COVID-19 pandemic. After criticism from tobacco control advocates, the Bank apologised and withdrew its decision.³⁰³¹

Sudan ranked 19^th out of 57 countries in the 2020 Global Tobacco Interference Index (GTIII). The GTIII is produced by the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC), a partner in STOP, which is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The GTIII found that industry participates in creating the legislative standards for tobacco and benefits directly from a National Investment Law. It found that the government does not prohibit contributions from the industry to political parties or monitor its meetings with tobacco industry representatives. The industry has also used CSR activities to encourage partnership with government, including a ‘back to school’ programme and university construction costs, the opening of which was officiated by the President and the Minister of Industry.³²

According to an investigation conducted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in February 2021, billions of cigarettes produced by British American Tobacco are smuggled every year through Mali to the northern region of Africa, reaching Sudan.³³ The report alleged that: “Illicit cigarettes from the capital, Bamako, and ports in Guinea, Benin, and Togo are loaded into convoys with armed guards and driven north along thousands of kilometres of winding roads and desert tracks to Libya and Algeria, and as far east as Sudan.”³³BAT has denied any wrongdoing.

Extensive research published in 2021 by the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, a partner in STOP, and in conjunction with BBC’s Panorama, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project uncovered multiple instances of British American Tobacco seeking to frustrate tobacco control measures in Africa.

• For more details visit The BAT Files on Tobacco Tactics

Relevant Links

BAT Sudan

Haggar Cigarette and Tobacco Factory Ltd. (JTI)

TobaccoTactics Resources

• British American Tobacco
• Japan Tobacco International
• Africa’s Tobacco Epidemic
• A list of TobaccoTactics pages on Africa

References

The post Sudan-Country Profile appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

This is one of six geographic regions of the World Health Organization (WHO). This region includes 22 countries, with a total population of nearly 679 million people.³⁴

Smoking in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

The latest WHO tobacco trends report, 2019, projects a smoking rate (properly called tobacco prevalence) of 18.6% in the EMR in 2020. The report expects a tobacco prevalence decrease in the region from the estimated 20.5% in 2015 to 17% in 2025. This decrease will however mean an increase in numbers of tobacco users from the estimated 90 million in 2015 to 94 million in 2025 because of population growth.³⁵

The report also shows a huge difference in tobacco prevalence according to gender with 33.3% tobacco prevalence among males but just 3.9% among females. Another remarkable difference is the tobacco prevalence across different countries in the region. It starts at 9.6% in Oman and reaches 42.6% in Lebanon.³⁵
The EMR has the highest waterpipe use as compared to any other region. Waterpipes are a particular method of consuming tobacco with it heated and drawn through water in inhaled via a pipe., It is estimated that schoolchildren aged 13–15 use waterpipes more frequently than cigarettes.³⁶ Studies indicate mean prevalence estimate of ever use of waterpipe of 31.9% among adults in the EMR.³⁷

Tobacco in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Out of the 22 countries of this region, at least 14 countries grow tobacco and at least seven countries manufacture it. The following table shows a summary of agriculture and production of tobacco in the EMR (table 1). This table is based on fact sheets prepared jointly by WHO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 2015. However it is believed that both agriculture and production are much higher now.³⁸

Table on agriculture and production of tobacco in the EMR

Who dominates the market?

The tobacco products that destroy so many people’s lives are the result of the activities of a number of companies around the world. The Tobacco Supply Chain Database enables tobacco control researchers and advocates to understand what the supply chain is, where it is located and who is involved. For more information, access the database here.

The cigarette market in the EMRO region is dominated by international and multinational companies, with their brands being the most sold cigarette in at least 12 countries. Locally produced cigarette brands are still the highest sellers in at least four countries. The waterpipe market shows a growing presence from multinational companies.³⁹⁴⁰

Table showing countries with most sold cigarette brand owned by international and multinational companies

Table showing the countries with most sold cigarette brand owned by local companies

Table giving examples of the dominant brands of waterpipe in the region

Links to governments

The industry aims to make sure it is well-represented

The industry has an established strategy in the region to lobby political figures and governments to serve its benefits. This strategy indicates links between tobacco industry and senior officials in the region trying to influence their decision making process.⁵²
It is reported that the tobacco industry used corporate social responsibility activities as a strategy to access officials in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. An example of the industry lobbying in the EMR is in trying to influence the countries’ selection of their representatives to the Conference of Parties (COP) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Tobacco industries have pushed countries to send representatives from non-health sectors, who may see tobacco as a business rather than a health hazard.⁵³

There are state-owned and state-supported companies in number of EMR countries such as the Eastern Company in Egypt, Iran Tobacco Company in Iran, National Tobacco and Matches Corporation in Tunisia, Regie Libanaise des Tabacs et Tombacs in Lebanon, Régie des Tabacs in Morocco, and Kamaran Industry and Investment in Yemen. Most of these companies are a monopoly in charge of production, importing, and exporting tobacco products.⁵⁴

Examples of good practice

Iran, one of the leading tobacco control countries in the region, is reported to be a successful country in resisting tobacco industry interferences by adherence to the WHO FCTC Article 5.3 guidelines. Iran bans corporate social responsibility activities by the tobacco industry and does not accept any support from or presence of the representatives of the Iranian Tobacco Company, a state monopoly, in its tobacco control policy making process.⁵⁵

Saudi Arabia, another leading tobacco control country in the region, has issued a policy to regulate communication and interaction, if required, between the government officials and tobacco industry. The policy reflects the principles and recommendations of Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC. ⁵⁶

Roadmap to tobacco control

Most countries of the EMR are parties to WHO FCTC with 19 out of 22 countries have ratified joining the treaty.⁵⁷ Additionally, six countries of the region are parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.⁵⁸ Most countries of the EMR have tobacco control laws.⁵⁹ However, the strength of such laws varies dramatically from a country to another.⁶⁰

The WHO Report on Global Tobacco Epidemic 2019 shows that out of the 22 EMR countries there are six countries that have recent, representative and periodic data on tobacco prevalence for both adults and youth; seven countries that have legislation banning smoking in all public places; three countries that have national quit line and both nicotine replacement therapy and some cessation services cost-covered; five countries that have large pictorial warnings on tobacco packages; four countries that have conducted national tobacco control campaign aired on television and/or radio; ten countries that have legislation banning all forms of direct and indirect advertising; and three countries that have a tax on retail price on the most popular brand of cigarettes higher than 75%.⁶¹

Although the number of countries having such powerful tobacco control measures is not high, most of the EMR countries have at least some tobacco control measures. Most have implemented measures that puts them in the middle of their way to meet the comprehensive and recommended measures of tobacco control by the WHO FCTC. The report also shows that despite the existence of tobacco control laws, the compliance to such laws is challenging. For example, the report puts only one country in high compliance category out of the seven countries that have legislation banning smoking in all public places, and puts only five countries in high compliance category out of the ten countries that have legislation banning all forms of direct and indirect advertising. This compliance assessment highlights a huge gap in enforcement of existing legislation.⁶⁰

Stakeholders of tobacco control in the EMR includes governments, international intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutes. Most countries of the EMR have a tobacco control unit within their ministries of health. Most international intergovernmental organizations that are accredited as observers to the COP are present in the EMR including the Arab League that 19 of the EMR countries are included in its members.⁶² However the presence of non-governmental organizations accredited as observers to the COP is less noted in the EMR.⁶³⁶⁴

Some academics in the region work in the field of tobacco control research with an example of the American University in Beirut hosting the Knowledge hub of FCTC on waterpipe.⁶⁵ The WHO is present in the region through the Tobacco Free Initiative Unit in their office for the EMR, in addition to tobacco control focal point in the organization’s country offices.⁶⁶

Industry interference

Published literature shows that the EMR has been suffering from tobacco industry interferences for many decades. Such interferences undermine efforts of tobacco control in the region leading to continuous high prevalence of tobacco use. ⁶⁷ The following are themes and examples of tobacco interferences in the EMR.

Illicit trade

The tobacco industry claims to combat illicit trade but that contradicts their overproduction in some markets and oversupplying to others and in the knowledge that excess tobacco will end up on the illicit market. In the region, the tobacco industry continued to supply the contraband trade despite appeals by the government to cease undermining its revenues.⁶⁸ The magnitude of illicit trade in both cigarettes and waterpipes is huge within the EMR with studies referring to the tobacco industry involvement either through the producers or the distributers of tobacco, using various routes to, from and across the region. ^697071727374

Hijacking public health policies

The industry aims to undermine tobacco control efforts through their links to governments in the EMR.⁵² For example the tobacco industry manoeuvrings to hijack the track and tracing systems of tobacco products in the EMR. Although, as discussed earlier, the links between the tobacco industry and illicit trade are studied and observed, there is still an ongoing process of signing memorandums of understanding between them and the governments in many of the EMR allowing the industry to have links with customs and giving them the opportunity to influence the new track and tracing systems.⁷⁵

Influencing taxation policies

Internal documents of the tobacco industry show their efforts in delaying the establishment of unified tax increases across the Gulf Cooperation Council’s countries that consists of six of the EMR countries; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.⁷⁶ An internal Philip Morris memo showed how they work strategically to influence the tobacco taxing system in Egypt through range of interferences including lobbying at all levels of the authorities.⁷⁷ In Pakistan, the tobacco industry did changes in cigarette prices at their advantage by shifting some of their most sold brands to the lowest tax slab allowing itself to manipulate the market by price setting.⁷⁸

Expanding of multinational companies

The expansion of multinational companies in the region as part of the industry’s strategy to shift from developed markets, where tobacco control policies are strong and smoking prevalence is declining, to emerging markets where demand for tobacco is higher and tobacco control legislations are weaker. Additionally, local companies such as Eastern Company in Egypt are expanding as well.⁷⁹ A prominent example for the expansion of multinational companies in the EMR is the increasing investments of Japan Tobacco International in the region. The company bought two major tobacco manufactures in the EMR: the Egyptian waterpipe company Nakhla and the Sudanese cigarette manufacturer Haggar, which gives Japan Tobacco access to export its products to 85 countries, mainly in the EMR and Africa.⁸⁰⁸¹

Promoting Next Generation Products

The tobacco industry is aggressively promoting electronic nicotine/ non-nicotine delivery systems and heated tobacco products in the region and has already launched them in number of countries such as Kuwait.⁸² It is also expected that an international “vaping expo”, first of its kind, will be held in the United Arab Emirates in 2020 to frame the future of such products connecting manufacturers, distributors, and users of the products.⁸³ Although these products are being promoted globally by the industry, the case in the EMR is unique as electronic cigarettes were already banned in 11 out of the 22 countries of the region in 2017.⁸⁴ However, the situation is dramatically changing with Saudi Arabia, one of the leading tobacco control countries in the region, reverting its legislation and allowing electronic cigarettes, raising fears that a domino effect will take place allowing the product in the rest of EMR.⁸⁵ The industry is using number of interferences to promote these products such as lobbying policy makers and targeting youth with false information and by adding favourable flavours to its products.⁸⁶

Corporate social responsibility activities

Tobacco industry maneuvers to manipulate public opinion to gain the appearance of respectability happen across the countries in the EMR. For example, funding the education of women from Afghanistan in western universities by British American Tobacco;⁸⁷ donating to cancer screening and treatment hospital in Egypt by Eastern Company for Tobacco;⁸⁸ and funding projects for education in Pakistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Palestine by Philip Morris International.⁸⁹ Additionally, the industry sponsor popular sports such as the Egyptian Eastern Company for Tobacco sponsoring a football team carrying its name and playing in the Egyptian football league.⁹⁰Multinational companies also sponsor sport teams to brand their products such as British American Tobacco branding their electronic cigarette on McLaren cars (motorsports team) in the Bahrain Grand Prix, and Philip Morris International using Ducati (motorcycle team) for branding at the Qatar MotoGP.⁹¹

Use of influencers and allies

A clear example of this well-practiced tactic is the visit of prominent doctors from number of Egyptian medical schools to a Philip Morris International factory in Switzerland, and then posting on social media about the visit claiming that it was supported by the WHO to check a new product of the company that has no side effects. The WHO issued a press release to condemn the incident and to deny any support to such tobacco industry maneuvers. The doctors removed the post from social media after the WHO press release.⁹²The industry is also active in approaching universities to keep its presence among youth and to recruit best qualified graduates in the region to keep growing. For example, British American Tobacco is listed as partner to the American University in Cairo in conducting employment fairs, After conducting such meetings, BAT publish news about it, which gives the impression that they are linked somehow to this prestigious university.⁹³⁴⁰

Generating industry-funded science

The tobacco industry use of research and policy forums is a well-known strategy to influence policy-making processes. In the EMR there is an example of funding research institute in Pakistan with thousands of dollars to conduct studies in the field of tobacco. This fund from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, which is a Philip Morris International funded organization. There are also examples of think tanks in the EMR that are allied with the tobacco industry which are the Egyptian Center for Public Policy Studies and the Pakistani Policy Research Institute of Market Economy. Both think tanks opposed plain packaging of tobacco products despite the fact that it is an evidence based public health tobacco control intervention.⁹⁴

Benefiting from emergencies and political instability

Tobacco industries look to use political instability as an opportunity to increase illicit trade and shape tobacco control policies in their favour. A number of countries in the region requested that tobacco control in protracted complex emergency situations should be an item for discussion during the COP of the WHO FCTC.⁹⁵ As a result of such discussion, the COP made a specific decision in this regard aiming to providing technical and financial assistance to countries in protracted complex emergency situations, and requesting countries to pay special attention to Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC and related Guideline.⁹⁶

Tobacco Tactics resources

• JTI Involvement in Smuggling
• Gallaher Versus its Cypriot Distributor
• CSR Strategy
• Motorsport Sponsorship
• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World
• Think Tanks

References

The post Eastern Mediterranean Region appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Career with Japan Tobacco International

Pekhazis joined RJ Reynolds in 1988 where he held various marketing and sales positions.⁹⁷
Promoted to Regional Vice President Middle East in 1998, his responsibilities were extended to the North and West of Africa, and Iran from 2004.⁹⁷
Turkey was added to his responsibilities in April 2007 and the World Wide Duty Free in January 2008.⁹⁷

Involvement in JTI’s Expansion

Cigarettes in Sudan

In 2011, JTI announced a deal to buy Sudanese cigarette manufacturer Haggar Cigarette & Tobacco Factory (HCTF).¹⁰⁰
Pekhazis stated that JTI’s motivation behind the decision to invest in Sudan was to expand the company’s geographical footprint in developing markets and to build a strong business base there.¹⁰⁰
At the time of acquisition, HCTF held a 80% market share of the cigarette market in the Republic of Sudan.¹⁰¹

Waterpipes in Egypt

Japan Tobacco Inc, the parent company of JTI, announced on 16 November 2012, that it had entered into an agreement to acquire all the outstanding shares of Egyptian waterpipe company Nakhla.¹⁰²
At the time, Nakhla held a 70% waterpipe tobacco market share in Eqypt, and exported its products to 85 countries, mainly in the Middle East and Africa.¹⁰²
In response to this development, Pekhazis commented that; “Our acquisition of Nakhla offers an excellent opportunity for growth in the waterpipe segment and widens our brand portfolio, in line with our strategy to address the needs of adult consumers across a range of tobacco product categories… Furthermore, the acquisition enhances JTI’s geographical footprint in the Middle East and Africa, and over the long-term, provides a platform for JTI to participate in the sizeable cigarette market in Egypt.”¹⁰²

Spokesperson on Smoking Lounges in Munich Airport

JTI opened three smoking lounges, a ‘Camel Plaza’ and six smoking corners at Munich Airport in 2008, claiming to provide smoking passengers a ‘relaxed environment’ before boarding the plane.¹⁰³
Pekhazis stated in response that “I think this new facility will be applauded by many people travelling from or via Munich, both smokers and non-smokers” and concluded that “This is a win-win solution for all parties: the smoking public is looked after, non-smokers are not annoyed by tobacco smoke and the airport provides an excellent service to travellers.”¹⁰³

• Other airports with tobacco company sponsored smoking areas: Bristol Airport (UK).

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Japan Tobacco International
• RJ Reynolds

References

The post Fadoul Pekhazis appeared first on TobaccoTactics.