Orlando Show News: Kent issues wake-up call to global industry

Print Article E-Mail Article

IAADFS Washington lobbyist Jon Kent issued a powerful plea at this week's IAADFS show in Orlando to all sectors of the industry to join the defence of tobacco sales, which are under threat from the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO has proposed a ban on duty-free sales of tobacco by 2003 under its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Although the IAADFS and the tobacco industry had expressed concerns to the WHO and to the US government, Kent said this was not enough. "We need a wake-up call worldwide," he explained. "This is a global problem. We can?t afford to make one argument in the western hemisphere and then watch different arguments being made in other regions. This requires a coordinated approach."

In the US, the IAADFS has met with the government and believes the battle can be won. But Kent said the entire industry needed to become involved by lobbying at national level and through the business community in each country in order to face down the WHO threat. "The industry has not stepped forward to face this threat, and there is this feeling that the IAADFS can do it alone," he told delegates. "Take a look at the business and at the affluence it has brought you, and ask yourself: are you ready to lose it? Are you ready to face the logical next step when liquor is under threat? Are you ready to lose your special status as an industry, and all the benefits that duty-free brings?" He said the IAADFS could help provide contacts in individual countries for any companies that want to get involved in the fight to retain duty-free tobacco.