[Intl-tobacco] Philip Morris director to head USTR?

[Robert Weissman]

One of the leading candidates for the position of U.S. Trade
Representative is Richard Parsons, president of Time Warner and a
former Ford administration official. Parsons is also a member of the board
of directors of Philip Morris.

The appointment of Parsons could be a serious setback for tobacco control
efforts. Not only would it confer undeserved respectability
on the tobacco industry and give Philip Morris (more) worrisome access to
top levels of the Bush administration, it might also signal
a return to the bad old days of U.S. trade policy -- when the U.S.
government used trade sanctions or the threat of trade sanctions to
force open markets to U.S. tobacco multinationals, and to undermine
tobacco control measures.

-- 
Robert Weissman	<rob@essential.org>
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