A report published by The Union was released this week for the opening of the third intergovernmental negotiating body on the Protocol on the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (INB-3) in Geneva. “How Eliminating the Global Illicit Cigarette Trade Would Increase Tax Revenue and Save Lives” states that if illicit trade were eliminated, governments would gain, in principle immediately, at least US $33 billion; and from 2030 onwards save over 160,000 lives a year. This will be in combination with the resulting overall increase in cigarette price of 3.9 percent and a consequent fall in consumption of 2.0 percent. In just six years over a million lives would be saved, the vast majority of them in middle- and low- income countries. To download the report here.