Due to the overwhelmingly positive response by member States and stakeholders to the Dialogue on Illicit Trade and the Sustainable Development Goals, UNCTAD will host the Illicit Trade Forum in February 2020.

This event will be organised in collaboration with the Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade (TRACIT).

Sessions of the two-day event will address:

The impacts of illicit trade on achieving the SDGs

Illicit trade significantly endangers all aspects of the SDGs. It creates a triple threat to the financing of development: crowding out legitimate economic activity, depriving governments of revenues for investment in vital public services and increasing the costs of achieving the SDGs by eroding the progress already made.

This session sets out the main reasons why governments should prioritize actions to combat illicit trade and conveys the importance of intergovernmental leadership to coordinate resources, share expertise, establish guidelines and promote international enforcement cooperation among United Nations Member States.

Understanding the size and shape of illicit trade

By its very nature, illicit trade is difficult to both identify and quantify. However without this information it is difficult for appropriate policies to be designed and implemented to tackle this scourge. Further, gathering and sharing data under appropriate frameworks requires the investment of significant resources by member States and stakeholders

This session will discuss the different ways in which illicit trade is measured and shared by different countries and stakeholders. Particularly, discussion will address the commonalities in terms of methodologies and challenges.

 

Register to the event here.