A total of 176 countries Monday 12 November adopted what World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan called a 'game-changing' global agreement to combat the illegal tobacco trade. PANA reports that the pact was ratified at a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, on WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The agreement came into force in 2005. 'The treaty envisages an international tracking system which aims to halt the smuggling and counterfeiting of tobacco products - a trade which accounts for 11 per cent of the total tobacco market and costs governments an estimated US$40 billion in lost tax revenue,' the WHO said in a statement.