The paper outlines the increasing efforts being made by the governments of PICTs to reduce tobacco consumption but notes that while interventions have had some causal effect in country trends, they risk being thwarted by the impacts of globalisation, including unopposed marketing through satellite television and the internet, the introduction of novel products including e-cigarettes, and the unprecedented opportunities for smuggling, illicit tobacco trading and tax evasion. These multiple threats cannot be dealt with by PICTs acting alone. Political will at the highest levels of government needs to be galvanised, coupled with sustained support from civil society and international organisations to promote effective and long-term action to deal with the growing burden of NCDs to which the use of tobacco products contributes.
The paper shows that there is an upward trend in the value of imports of tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes in American Samoa, CNMI, FSM, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, PNG and Vanuatu; a downward trend in the Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, and Wallis and Futuna and a somewhat flat trend in the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Read the full paper here.
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