WHO. Duty and Tax Free Alcohol/Confectionery

Created on 2nd of November 2005   Last Modified on the 19th of August 2010

It is anticipated that at some future stage, health activists will also challenge the duty and tax-free sale of other products, such as alcohol and confectionery.

Following the successful completion of their FCTC Treaty on tobacco products, the World Health Organisation (WHO) are increasingly turning their attention to other products considered injurious to health, particularly alcohol. On 3 December 2009, the WHO published a draft strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. The strategy included the following new proposal, which had not been contained in earlier working papers:-

(g) "taxing sales of alcoholic beverages to, and/or the importation of such beverages by, international travellers on the same basis as if such travellers had purchased such beverages in the domestic market of the country levying the taxes."

The intention of this proposal was to allow WHO Member States to ban tax and duty-free alcohol sales and traveller allowances as part of their national taxation and pricing policies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. The UKTRF duly wrote to the UK's Chief Medical Officer, and the European Travel Retail Council also approached other national delegations to stress that duty-free was not part of the problem and the proposal to ban it was unjustifiable. At their Executive Board meeting on 18-23 January 2010, the WHO agreed to delete this paragraph entirely and not replace it with an alternative text.

The threat has therefore been averted for the immediate future but the UKTRF will continue to defend duty and tax-free sales of alcohol or confectionery from any future proposals.

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