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ASH Daily News

12 December 2002

HEADLINES

Customs seizures ending up on black market
Chequered flag falls on Spa’s grand prix hopes
Imperial to colour re-brand ‘lights’ and ‘mild’ ranges
New York and anti-smoking laws


Full Text


Customs seizures ending up on black market

Drugs, alcohol and tobacco seized by customs officers found their way to the
black market, according to a government watchdog report published yesterday.

Seized items were sold on the streets after leaving storage depots where
there were no effective controls or stocktaking.

The National Audit Office report found that smuggling and unpaid VAT is
costing the country £17.1 billion a year. It also disclosed that the amount
of tax owing to Customs soared by 55 per cent between March 2001 and March
2002 to reach £2.1 billion.

Customs seized 1.6 billion cigarettes and 5.4 million litres of beer, wine
and spirits in 2001-02, the report said. The rapid growth in seizures meant
that Customs could no longer store all goods in its own managed Queen’s
warehouses and contracted P&O Trans European Ltd to store vehicles, alcohol
and tobacco. P&O lost the contract in June this year.

The report said: “Overall one third of items checked at one contractor’s
warehouse were incorrect and over a half at a second warehouse.”

The report also estimated that £22 million of drugs-related cash seized by
Customs was simply being stored rather than banked and earning interest.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, said that Customs were
dealing with the problems.

Source: The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Guardian 12 December
2002



Chequered flag falls on Spa’s grand prix hopes

The faint possibility of reinstating the Belgian Grand Prix next year was
snuffed out when the country’s chamber of deputies rejected a proposed
amendment to the new anti-tobacco advertising law.

The law will be introduced as planned and a tobacco advertising ban will be
introduced on August 1.

Source: The Guardian, 12 December 2002



Imperial to colour re-brand ‘lights’ and ‘mild’ ranges

Imperial is to re-brand its ‘Light’, ‘Mild’ and ‘Ultra’ tobacco brands
according to the colour of the packaging following the final defeat on
Tuesday for the industry in the European Court of Justice.

Imperial is the first to declare its hand ahead of the EU Products Directive
next year, which will ban the sue of the terms such as ‘light’ and ‘mild’ on
tobacco packaging.

Source: Marketing, 12 December 2002

According to the Evening Standard, BBC Radio 4 is to air a programme on
successful companies; its first two subjects are to be British American
Tobacco and MacDonald’s.

Source: Evening Standard, 11 December 2002



New York and anti-smoking laws

City leaders have agreed to a sweeping ban on smoking in workplaces,
including bars and restaurants. A public hearing on the bill was planned for
Friday and the City Council could vote on the same day. The proposed law
also calls for all cigarettes sold in the city to be self extinguishing.

Source: International Herald and Tribune, The Times, 12 December 2002


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Naj Dehlavi
Action on Smoking and Health
102 Clifton Street
London EC2A 4HW
http://www.ash.org.uk