The report contains four key elements:

• Updated country level estimates of the illicit cigarette market around the world, using2007 data or as close to 2007 as available;
• Evidence that higher income countries, where cigarettes are more expensive, have lower levels of cigarette smuggling than lower income countries, contrary to the tobacco industry claim that the overall level of smuggling is dependent on cigarette price;
• Evidence that the burden of cigarette smuggling falls disproportionately on low and middle income countries, where the majority of the world's tobacco users live; and
• Estimates of the number of lives saved and revenue gained globally in the future if smuggling were eliminated.

”How Eliminating the Global Illicit Cigarette Trade would Increase Tax Revenue and Save lives” (published by the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease) was written by Joossens, L. FCA,  Merriman, D., Institute of Government and Public Affairs and Department of Public Administration, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA, Ross, H., Strategic Director, International Tobacco Control Research, American Cancer Society, and Raw, M., Special Lecturer, UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.

Download the full report here