Washington Post: Yes to Intl Tobacco Control

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Selling Death Overseas

                  Tuesday, April 7, 1998; Page A22

                  AS COMMUNISM FELL in Eastern Europe, Marlboro Man
rode
                  into town. U.S. cigarette makers were in the vanguard,
                  exporting their lethal products as symbols of Western
                  glamour and free-market prosperity. In the former
Soviet
                  Union, the three big multinational tobacco firms became,
                  along with energy companies, the biggest investors. When
                  Western advertising began to provoke a nationalist
                  backlash, a new brand appeared. "Peter the Great"
                  cigarettes were designed -- according to an inscription
                  on each pack -- for those who "believe in the revival of
                  the traditions and grandeur of the Russian lands."
                  They're made by, yes, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

                  The tobacco industry may be on the defensive here, but
                  it's unashamedly on the march overseas, trying any trick
                  to lure old smokers to new brands in ex-Communist
                  countries and hook new smokers there as well as in the
                  developing world. The big three -- Reynolds, Philip
                  Morris Inc. and British-American Tobacco Co. -- wanted a
                  settlement in the first place in large part so that
                  legal challenges in their stagnant home market wouldn't
                  distract them from growth opportunities in the Third
                  World. But an agreement here that protects some
American
                  children from tobacco addiction at the expense of many
                  more children in foreign countries wouldn't be much of a
                  victory.

                  That's why it's important that any tobacco bill includes
                  some measures to limit tobacco's predatory behavior
                  overseas. Sen. John McCain's proposal -- with support
                  from senators Ron Wyden, Dick Durbin and others --
would
                  prohibit the U.S. government from promoting the U.S.
                  tobacco industry abroad. It also would step up U.S.
                  efforts against cigarette smuggling and assist other
                  nations in their anti-smoking efforts, with funding
                  coming from a two-cents-a-pack "fee" on overseas sales
                  of U.S. cigarettes. Perhaps most important, it would
                  seek to impose the same restrictions against selling or
                  marketing to children overseas as would apply here.

                  Some of these provisions are modeled on the Foreign
                  Corrupt Practices Act, a precedent for U.S. regulation
                  of companies' overseas behavior. But it's not clear
                  whether they could apply to foreign subsidiaries, and
                  even in their present form they're under attack from
                  some senators and the tobacco industry. The Clinton
                  administration should work with Congress in passing the
                  strongest legally defensible provisions possible.
                  President Clinton also should provide more leadership of
                  an international coalition against smoking. Tobacco
                  accounted for 2.6 percent of the worldwide burden of
                  disease in 1990, according to a recent study by the
                  World Health Organization and World Bank. By 2020, that
                  figure will grow to 9 percent -- more than malnutrition,
                  HIV or any single disease. U.S. firms bear considerable
                  responsibility for that sad statistic.

                        ) Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company