The Vietnamese smoke around 58 billion cigarettes per year - officially all made by government owned 'Vinataba'. BAT boasts former British Conservative minister Kenneth Clarke as its deputy Chairman. The accusation is that BAT has been smuggling its brands of cigarettes into Vietnam to break the state monopoly by creating public demand. This strategy seems to have worked; they now have a £40 million joint venture with Vinataba. "The strategy there was to bring cigarettes in illegally in order to force the Vietnamese Government into a position where they would negotiate a joint venture with British American Tobacco", says lawyer Eric Legresley. And internal BAT documents uncovered in this film seem to agree: one ex-employee confesses in a memo "[British American Tobacco] has been brilliantly successful over 30 years in growing and optimising the profits from managing the smuggling of various group brands" ... BAT is currently under investigation in the UK.

Produced by ABC Australia