Industry Launches Transnational Alliance Against Illicit Trade

An international industry alliance against illicit trade in a broad range of sectors was launched this week, aimed at reducing “staggering losses” by targeting supply chains, including transportation, digital channels, free trade zones and financial networks.

The Transatlantic Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade (TRACIT) was launched on 6 September in New York, as a US nonprofit group.

“Illegal trade in agri-foods, alcohol, fisheries, forestry, pesticides, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, precious metals and gemstones, tobacco, wildlife, all forms of products vulnerable to trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy, and trafficking in persons are major problems for a growing number of industries,” the alliance said in a press release, citing losses in the trillions of dollars per year.

The release says TRACIT is “a private sector initiative that connects and mobilizes business across industry sectors and national borders. Its work program focuses on strengthening the business response to illicit trade by exchanging information and mitigation tactics in and across key industry sectors and reducing vulnerabilities in supply chains, including transportation, digital channels, free trade zones and financial networks.”

The initiative’s work program ranges from trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy to serious crimes such as trafficking in persons and wildlife, it said.

It adds: “TRACIT also promotes a more holistic approach to government enforcement, by contributing industry best practice to strengthen policies, legislation, institutions and enforcement mechanisms, thereby closing governance gaps that facilitate illicit trade.”

The group is led by a Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Advisory Group and a Secretariat composed of a director general, deputy director general and expert staff.

The secretariat and expert team at TRACIT were drawn from a range of existing initiatives, including Director General Jeffrey Hardy, who was previously director of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP). Others have senior backgrounds at Interpol, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the International Chamber of Commerce. Some have intellectual property legal expertise. The private sector work dovetails with national and international organisation efforts. It was not immediately clear how the initiative works with public interest representatives.

Officials from the US Department of Homeland Security, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), OECD and elsewhere praised the initiative. Heightened concerns over security, terrorism, organized crime, sustainability and consumer protection are compelling governments to strengthen efforts to combat illicit trade, the release stated.

“Illicit trade has grown well beyond the capabilities of individual governments and individual companies and now demands a sustained, coordinated response,” Hardy said in the release. “Business has an important role to help shape this response, and today we’re launching the Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade to intensify business collaboration with governments and inter-governmental organizations to mitigate the social and economic harms of illicit trade.”

“Our work with governments aims at driving action with global governance bodies and promoting systemic approaches, interconnected strategies and shared resources,” said Hardy.

Members of the Alliance pay either $25,000 (for corporations with annual revenue over $500,000 million) or $10,000 (under $500 million).