[Intl-tobacco] Italy Could Sue U.S. Tobacco Firms - Paper (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Italy Could Sue U.S. Tobacco Firms - Paper
Source: Reuters, Sunday, 7/16/00

ROME (Reuters) - Italy may consider suing U.S. tobacco firms on their own
soil for the harm caused to Italian smokers, Corriere della Sera newspaper
reported on Sunday.

The move follows a legal decision last week to make U.S. tobacco companies
pay massive reparations to American smokers.

Codacons, Italy's main consumer association, said it had proposed that the
government ``begin legal proceedings on behalf of the Italian people
directly in the United States,'' Corriere della Sera reported.

On Friday, a jury in Miami, Florida ordered U.S. tobacco companies to pay
$145 billion in punitive damages for injuring hundreds of thousands of
Florida smokers.

Tobacco lawyers have pledged to spend years appealing the verdict and may
negotiate a more modest settlement.

Italy's agriculture minister, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, said any legal
action in the United States would be within the power of Prime Minister
Giuliano Amato.

``We will decide the steps the government will take once we have received
an opinion from the State Bar Association,'' Scanio, who has already had
contact with lawyers in the United States, told Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper
on Sunday.

Italy's health minister, Dr Umberto Veronesi, plans to meet executives of
Philip Morris (NYSE:MO - news), the world's largest tobacco company, in
the near future, Corriere della Sera said.

Codacons said the aim would be to obtain compensation for Italian smokers
which they cannot get from their own country.

The Italian state itself manufactures cigarettes under the brand Monopoli
di Stato.