Illicit trade hurting TT

Sir Ronnie, was in Trinidad to deliver a presentation on The Illicit Trade – A Global and Regional Perspective, at the 37th annual Crime Stoppers International Conference which ended yesterday at the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre.

A statement issued by his associates said, “Illicit trade is a major and growing problem worldwide. Be it smuggling, counterfeit or tax evasion, governments are losing billions of dollars in tax revenues, legitimate businesses are being undermined and consumers exposed to poorly made and unregulated products.” In an interview with Newsday, Sir Ronnie said ISIS was using the smuggling of illicit tobacco products to fund its terrorism.

“That organisation that dares to call itself Islamic State (of course, it’s neither Islamic nor is it a State), but at one level it purports to be against smoking and at another level it’s making money from illicit dealing in tobacco to fund its terrorism. Just as they do with centuries- old iconic sites: they destroy them because they try to suggest that it represents idolatry but at the same time they preserve small movable parts that they can sell, again to fund their terrorism.” He said that while in the region the total amount of tobacco which is traded illegally is probably about five percent it is estimated that it is more than 70 percent in Panama. He said the police, customs, private industry and the government need to recognise the problem and do something about it by passing the necessary legislation before it begins to spiral out of control. Sir Ronnie urged members of the public not to buy smuggled cigarettes.

“Don’t think if you are offered cheap cigarettes that you are being offered a good deal, don’t think that this is a victimless crime because we are all victims: the government loses a fortune in proper revenue that it should be deriving and therefore it can’t use that revenue to build schools and hospitals or to provide social support for its citizens, so we all become victims in that sense.

Small businesses are put out of business by these crooks dealing in illicit tobacco and indeed, some of this tobacco contains the most dreadful stuff, some of it is manufactured on the other side of the world in factories that don’t care about hygiene or don’t care about the attempt to reduce harm and its dealt in by people who don’t care at what age kids might be using these products.”