The Determinants of Illicit Cigarette Trade in Malaysia

Tobacco use is the leading cause of some preventable deaths and it imposes a heavy burden on countries. Realizing the threat that tobacco use inflicts on global public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) has implemented the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) since 2003. Apart from controlling the consumption of legal tobacco products, the existence of illicit tobacco products in the market is becoming a prevalent problem and a severe challenge to public health. The term “illicit trade” has been well-defined in the WHO FCTC (WHO, 2003) as any practice or conduct prohibited by law and which relates to production, shipment receipt, possession, distribution, sale, or purchase, including any practice or conduct intended to facilitate such activity. To mitigate the illicit trade problem, WHO FCTC established a Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (WHO, 2013) based on Article 15 and entered into force on 25 September 2018 (WHO, 2018). This protocol consists of a package of measures in combating illicit trade issues and the forfeiture and confiscation of proceeds acquired from the illicit tobacco trade. Several strategies were implemented by Malaysia to minimize illicit tobacco trade, and Malaysia is considering the idea of ratifying the current protocol (Hassan et al., 2019)