Third Party Techniques

Highlights with topics considered to be of importance with the aim of promoting debates and decision-making in the area of ​​tobacco control. In this edition, the agenda covers: Electronic Cigarettes and Public Health: A Critical Analysis of Legislative Proposals PL 5008/2023 and PL 2158/2024 and Tobacco Industry Strategies to Promote DEF.

Bulletin eleven published by the Center for Studies on Tobacco and Health of the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Cetab/Ensp/Fiocruz). This edition consists of an editorial signed by Luis Guilherme Hasselmann; opinion on the integration of agrarian control in accordance with the global demands of COP 10, by Breno Gaspar; interview with Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva – Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Implementation of the Framework Convention (CONICQ) and extra news.

The illicit trade in tobacco products represents a major global concern for public health, economy and public safety. More specifically, the illicit trade in tobacco products undermines tobacco control policy efforts, particularly in relation to tax policy. As they are not taxed or regulated, illicit tobacco products do not have health warnings or packaging or labeling requirements, which favors their consumption. As with other regions in the world, the illegal cigarette trade in Mercosur involves lower average prices compared to taxed cigarettes. Furthermore, the increase in the accessibility of cigarettes, via the informal market, combined with the lower prices of smuggled products - and therefore not subject to regulation - favors the consumption of cigarettes by young people and low-income populations 1,4.

This essay seeks to describe the efforts made to portray the “reality of smuggling” in Brazil by analyzing the instruments and the strategies of the actors involved in these efforts, such as the Institute for Social and Economic Development of the Borders (IDESF), the National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality (FNCP), the Brazilian Institute for Ethics in Competition (ETCO), and the Brazilian Association for Combating Counterfeiting (ABCF). Smuggling has emerged as a critical topic in the agenda of the antipiracy coalition, and is associated with certain spaces, actors, and dynamics that define its key circuits, both territorially and socially: land borders (especially with Paraguay) traversed by commercial circuits that feed popular markets. By contemplating the actors, performances, instruments, and variables chosen to compose the figures of smuggling, it is possible to appreciate the agenda that is being put forward and the effects on the government and management of those circuits.