Washington Post Editorial on Framework Convention (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Anti-Smoking Goes Global
Washington Post Editorial
Saturday, July 10, 1999; Page A18 

 BY THE YEAR 2020, tobacco is expected to kill more people than any
 single disease, according to a recent study by public health experts.
 Smoking in the United States has declined, but U.S. companies remain the
 world's most successful cigarette manufacturers -- and their exports
 continue to increase. The harm they have brought to Americans, in other
 words, they are now seeking to visit many times over throughout the
 world.

 So it is appropriate that the world's nations are mobilizing in an
 unprecedented way to fight this unique threat to the public health. "It seems
 only right that we focus on tobacco," says Gro Harlem Brundtland, a
 former prime minister of Norway and now head of the World Health
 Organization. "At the turn of a century packed with achievements in
 science and medicine, tobacco stands out as an area of appalling neglect."

 WHO, for the first time in its history, is promoting a treaty --
specifically, a
 treaty to govern tobacco and the tobacco industry. Nations have
 negotiated protocols on trade and arms control and the environment, but
 never a legally binding convention on health. But in late May, 191 countries
 attending the World Health Assembly voted to begin negotiations on a
 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

 The talks won't be easy, and unfortunately they're not scheduled for
 completion until 2003. They shouldn't be regarded as a substitute for
 national action. But the possible benefits already are clear. A treaty could
 set standards for advertising, labeling, control of sale to children and
similar
 issues. Those standards in turn could give governments needed ammunition
 against the lobbying of multinational tobacco companies.

 In addition, without international cooperation, those companies can
 undermine many national attempts to control tobacco. Advertising can flow
 across borders on satellite television networks. Smuggling can undercut a
 country's efforts to tax appropriately and to insist that packages carry
 strong warnings. An international treaty could deal with such issues and
 also could control duty-free sale of cigarettes and help promote alternative
 crops for tobacco farmers. And a WHO convention might help convince
 its sister agency, the World Trade Organization, that cigarettes do not
 deserve routine free-trade protection but rather should be regulated as the
 addictive and lethal products that they are. 

 © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company