The International Tax Stamp Association’s (ITSA) reports its involvement in two sector events.
February saw Christine Macqueen (pictured) as a panellist at The Economist’s Global Illicit Trade Summit. Delegates gathered in Brussels to hear about the impact of illicit trade on goods and how to tackle the problem.
The event, attended by Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior and Security Jan Jambon, and Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), heard of work of ITSA for an industry tax stamp standard, ISO 19998 – as a way to secure tax revenues and global supply chains.
The standard, due to be published in draft in the last quarter of 2017, would compel all countries using stamps, and encourage those not using them, to have programmes that are in line with the best and most effective on the market.
The summit also heard of the enduring importance of linking digital technologies to material goods for effective ‘track and trace’ and, with it, improved levels of security and inter-party trust.
ITSA believes that truly robust solutions must combine material and digital security technologies – a view that is also recognised by both the WHO FCTC and the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2).
Delegates heard from Christine how ‘…this union of physical and digital features is essential to ensure that the combined objectives of authentication, traceability and tamper-evidence are achieved. This is something that information technologies alone are not able to do’.
ITSA member Keith Thompson addressed a campus organised by industry trade title, Tobacco Journal International. The event, in Germany, presented the tobacco industry with scientific, technical, marketing, and regulatory information.
They heard from Keith about the track and trace and security feature requirements of TPD2.
He said: ‘Digital only solutions, which consist of a barcode not supported by physical security features, are unsuitable for high-risk situations such as those relating to tobacco fraud, where large excise tax amounts are at stake. Tax stamp programmes can deliver effective authentication and track and trace solutions in the battle to secure revenues and prevent illicit trade.’
Delegates were advised that the way forward is for the digital serialisation requirements to be augmented with additional, multi-layered, high-security elements, such as those offered by excise tax stamps.
He said: ‘The opportunity to speak at this event has again underscored ITSA’s growing role and voice as a reputable opinion former in the tobacco sector. It came as another timely reminder that authorities have to ramp-up their investment in added value security solutions if counterfeiting and the trade in illicit goods around the world is to be checked, let alone stopped.’
