From producer to consumer. The principle of traceability applied in the food industry has proven its worth. Certainly, with flaws that have given rise to big scandals. But this digital identity card makes it possible, in most cases, to trace the origin of the product.
This is exactly what Laurent Fabius is aiming for with his bill on tobacco presented yesterday to the Council of Ministers. To fight against illicit trade, reports an AFP dispatch relayed today by your daily newspapers, this measure aims to make cigarette packets traceable from the place of production to the place of sale.
In fact, the text only ratifies a protocol of the World Health Organization (WHO) signed in January 2013 by France but not yet transposed into French law, continues the magazine Challenges.
With this strengthening of the supply chain, the packages will then become unique and tamper-proof.
Second principle adopted, that of the polluter pays. It is, in fact, the tobacco companies who will be responsible for setting up the traceability system. It will take the form of “unique, secure and indelible identification marks such as codes or stamps (…) affixed to all packets, all cartridges and all outer packaging of cigarettes”.
Hailed by national and European deputies, this anti-counterfeiting device is also unanimous among the ranks of tobacconists and anti-tobacco associations. A first in this area!
This project “has a real value as an example”, rejoices Gilles Pargneaux. And the deputy who fights against “the interference of the tobacco industry in the European Parliament” to recall that “90% of parallel trade cigarettes are manufactured in the factories of the tobacco companies and sold by them”.
It is also good news for the coffers of the State. The loss of tax revenue generated by tobacco smuggling amounts to 2.5 billion euros per year!
