Last week, Japan Tobacco International and Ministry of Finance of Luxembourg signed an agreement to intensify the fight again tobacco smuggling.
Every year, huge amounts of tobacco products are counterfeited and trafficked into the European Union. Criminal groups fabricate branded cigarettes and distribute them on the black market as genuine products. Counterfeiting generally comes together with smuggling as fake products never require paying taxes. 

International smuggling
Tobacco smuggling is a major headache for the European Union. Counterfeit tobacco products deprive EU countries of significant revenues every year and hurt legal tobacco businesses. In addition, the ingredients of the counterfeited cigs are not known and not subject to quality standards.

Jacques Coffeng, Chairman of JTI Benelux said that the major tobacco companies and governments had to unite efforts and collaborate in order to effectively confront the illicit tobacco trade. He added that in order to crack down that phenomenon, which casts a shadow on both Japan Tobacco International and the tobacco industry as a whole, the company managed to reach agreements with such countries as France, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to ratify the Memorandum signed with the European Union countries of December 2007.
“JTI effort is intensified by the signature of the agreement of cooperation with Luxembourg,” said JTI Chairman.

“For Luxembourg, the agreement concerns a matter of solidarity, similar to the political and economical solidarity between the member states of the European Union,” mentioned Pierrot Reding, Director of Excise Department of the Administration of Customs and Excise.
“In this context, the EU countries should be able to have unconditional trust in the Luxembourg partners in the fight against cigarette smuggling, as Luxembourg relies on its EU partners to ensure the Schengen Agreements and fight against illicit immigration,” Reding added.

Virtually, the cooperation agreement stipulates the exchange of information between the parties. The objective is to determine potential illicit processes and discourage them. While the law enforcement officials will inform Japan Tobacco International of monitoring and confiscation operations across the country, the tobacco giant will provide full access to its database and tracking systems, to help tracking its’ products distribution patterns.

JTI is also going to fund the professional training of the civil employees, especially the staff of Administration of Customs and Excise. The signature of the Memorandum on cooperation between JTI and Luxembourg will contribute to the implementation of long-term strategies to crack down illicit tobacco trade.

Japan Tobacco International is one of the largest tobacco manufacturers in the world. It sells world-famous brands such as Mild Seven, Winston and Camel (outside of the US). It also markets such popular brands as Benson & Hedges, Glamour, Silk Cut, LD, Monte Carlo and Sobranie. The company is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and employs more than 25,000 people in 120 countries. Its net sales reached $10.2 billion in 2010.