Update February 2026
The EU-ASEAN Business Council (EU-ABC) is a Singapore-based industry organization representing European businesses’ interests in the ASEAN region. They engage in regulatory policy advocacy in the ASEAN to protect and promote the interests of the businesses they represent. Prevailing themes in their vison, governance, and objective statements include the protection of business interests, collaboration with the ASEAN group of countries, support for ASEAN integration, and the removal of barriers to trade and investment. [1] Contrary to WHO FCTC Article 5.3, the EU-ABC, which has transnational tobacco companies (Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Brands) among its membership, promotes a blanket business friendly objective to “deepen cooperation between government and the private sector” to address illicit trade in tobacco. [2]
In promoting public-private engagement in the region, EU-ABC’s activities to tackle illicit trade in tobacco features Philip Morris International as a resource person or speaker. For example, in November 2025, the EU-ABC reported it held a series of high-level engagements in Vientiane, Laos, with ASEAN Customs Authorities and regional stakeholders, where its head of Illicit Trade Prevention was a speaker. Its documents promote PMI’s narrative such as “risk-based” and “proportionate regulation” and pro-tobacco industry tax policies such “regular tax adjustments instead of drastic increases” to ensure a predictable business environment.
A 2021 EU-ABC-sponsored article in The Business Times blames “high taxation rates, import quotas and license restrictions, and in some cases prohibition” to exacerbate illicit trade and promotes “public-private sector collaboration as key” to tackling the problem. [3]
The EU-ABC has collaborated with TRACIT, a tobacco industry-funded organization with a long history of promoting ineffective, industry-friendly policies – like low tobacco excise taxes – as a means to curb illicit trade. The EU-ASEAN Business Council itself, in its publication with TRACIT, has blamed e-cigarette bans in Singapore and Thailand as a reason for proliferation of illicit electronic smoking devices in Malaysia and the Philippines. The report goes on to claim that the illicit trade, in turn, would fuel crime, hinder economic growth, and promote human trafficking and forced labor in the Southeast Asian regional bloc. [4] This narrative is often used by the tobacco industry to thwart regular and significant increases in tobacco excise taxes, standardized packaging, and proactive bans on electronic smoking devices.
Despite e-cigarette products already enjoying a favorable tax rate under Philippine laws, this joint report from the two organizations, dated 2023, was re-released in the Philippines by at least two broadsheet publications in May and July 2024. [5,6] In November of the same year, a policy measure was discussed in the Philippine Congress to incentivize local production of these harmful products in the country’s less regulated special economic zones [7] from where illicit cigarettes have been previously diverted back into the Philippine market and ultimately seized by local authorities. [8,9]
The Philippines has recently restored tobacco’s status as a protected agricultural crop through the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act which now covers even finished products of the tobacco crop. This law raised penalties for illicit trade in tobacco but avoided meaningful reforms to curb illicit trade such as licensing and registration schemes and tracking and tracing systems.
[1] EU-ASEAN Business Council. (2024). About Us. Accessed 23 Nov 2024 from URL: https://www.eu-asean.eu/about-the-eu-abc/
[2] EU-ASEAN Business Council. Tackling Illicit Trade in ASEAN Advocacy Paper 2020 Accessed 20 Feb 2026 URL: Tackling-Illicit-Trade-in-ASEAN-Advocacy-Paper-2020.pdf pg.30
[3] The Business Times. Stamping out illicit trade in goods in ASEAN. 15 Feb 2021. Accessed 20 Feb 2026 from URL: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/stamping-out-illicit-trade-in-goods-in-asean
[4] EU-ASEAN Business Council. (2024). Examining the Negative Impact of Illicit Trade on The Asean Community Vision 2025. Accessed 23 Nov 2024 from URL: https://www.eu-asean.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/TRACIT_ASEANCommunity_May2023_01_FINAL.pdf
[5] Manila Standard Business. (9 July 2024). Stopping illicit trade a priority for ASEAN, report says. Accessed 23 Nov 2024 from URL: https://manilastandard.net/business/biz-plus/314469427/stopping-illicit-trade-a-priority-for-asean-report-says.html
[6] Inquirer. (9 May 2024). Illicit tobacco trade threatens Asean economies, 2025 vision–report says. Accessed 23 Nov 2024 from URL: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1939020/illicit-tobacco-trade-threatens-asean-economies-2025-vision-report-says
[7] Salceda, J.S. (2024). An act establishing a regulatory regime for electronic cigarette manufacturing, and for other purposes. Quezon City (Philippines): House of Representatives. Accessed 26 Nov 2024 from URL: https://docs.congress.hrep.online/legisdocs/basic_19/HB09866.pdf
[8] Republic of the Philippines Department of Finance – Bureau of Customs. (29 June 2022). BOC Port of Subic Seizes Php 40.10M Worth of Tobacco Products. Accessed 23 Nov 2024 from URL: BOC Port of Subic Seizes Php 40.10M Worth of Tobacco Products
[9] Republic of the Philippines Department of Finance – Bureau of Customs. (11 September 2024). Accessed 23 Nov 2024 from URL: https://customs.gov.ph/boc-port-of-subic-thwarts-smuggling-attempt-seizes-php-136-59-million-in-illicit-agricultural-products-and-cigarettes/