ETRC launches 2006 tobacco campaign

Tina Milton

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The European Travel Retail Council has released details of its 2006 campaign designed to fight threats to duty-free tobacco

The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) has released a briefing paper to help coordinate the industry's efforts to stave off the threat to ban duty-free tobacco sales. The campaign, backed by the slogan "Think Global, Act Local", is designed to encourage the trade to prepare the key arguments to defend the business against the World Health Organization's (WTO) tobacco control drive.

Global campaign coordinator Keith Spinks warned the industry that the political process varies widely across the world, explaining that what would be acceptable as a conventional lobby in the EU may not be tolerated elsewhere, particularly within the Middle East and Asia.

"The 2006 briefing provides a recommended 10-point campaign template for implementing a local action plan, based upon past experience of the industry's campaign team," he said. "We believe that with the WHO holding its first Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [FCTC] Conference of the Parties in Geneva in February 2006, where it will be taking decisions on procedural, financial and technical matters relating to the implementation of the treaty, there will be increased momentum from the tobacco control community to press countries into introducing the necessary legal provisions of the FCTC into national legislation."

Spinks stressed the importance of regional trade associations' support, as expressed at the tobacco workshop during the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes in November.

The full briefing paper for the campaign can be accessed on the ETRC's website at www.etrc-europe.com.