Dear Andrew and Rodrigo,
I hope are well. I am writing regarding the accession to the Protocole to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.
Government of Georgia and especially Ministry of Health are eager to become the Party to the Protocol. As I was informed, during the visit of the Head of the Secretariat, Minister of Health Dr. Sergeenko personally promised to support acceleration of internal
procedures and indeed with his big effort things were moving forward. As you might be aware not long ago Head of the Government, Prime Minister of Georgia resigned and for the moment there is a transitional Cabinet of Ministers. This political development
obviously had an effect on the processes which Government was committed to achieve in the short-term, including the Protocol issue.
The commitment to become a Party to the Protocol is still there but according to our knowledge 2nd of July is the deadline for depositing the Instrument if Georgia wants to be among the first 40 Parties to enable Protocol’s entry into force.
We would like to kindly ask you how fixed are these deadlines and what would be your advise or support to help us to accelerate internal and external processes.
Many thanks in advance for your kind reply.
With best regards,