• news analysis

Internal British American Tobacco (BAT) documents¹ have been explicit about the knowledge of cigarette smuggling into Vietnam. In one document, Vietnam Status Report (12 May 1995), it was stated: “Cigarette imports were banned 6 years ago. Smuggled sales into Vietnam are currently estimated at approximately 7 bn [billion] p.a. although prior to a crackdown in 1990 (when all smuggling was virtually eliminated for 18 months) it was in the region of 12–17 bn p.a.”²

The same document also stated: “SE [State Express] 555 is the major smuggled brand and there is no doubt it has a tremendous image and sales potential in the country. BAT has resisted agreeing to manufacture 555 in Vietnam due both to concerns about the ability to sell the brand as a locally manufactured product and to the possible impact of a licence outside Vietnam. However, Vinataba [the Vietnamese State monopoly] sees a licence of 555 as an attractive opportunity for the JV [joint venture], and believes that BAT’s opposition to a licence is simply to ‘protect the smuggling’ trade.” …