[Intl-tobacco] Canada: Trade mission to promote tobacco in China

[Robert Weissman]

Trade mission to promote 'national evil'
Tobacco growers join trip to China
by Jack Aubry / with files from Chris Wattie, National Post / Ottawa Citizen,
Source: National Post, Thursday, 2/1/01

OTTAWA - The Prime Minister's trade mission to China will include a group
selling Canadian tobacco products, despite objections from Health Canada
over promoting what Allan Rock, the Health Minister, calls the "national
evil" of smoking.

Three representatives of the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing
Board will leave next week with Jean Chrétien and the rest of the trade
delegation for a nine-day trip to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The
same group was also part of Mr. Chrétien's 1999 trade mission to Japan.

Their participation comes just a few weeks after the federal government
enacted regulations requiring warning labels on cigarette packages that
include photos of diseased lungs and mouths.

Introducing the measure last January, Mr. Rock promised to use "every
lawful lever" against cigarettes and called smoking a "national evil." He
asked former U.S. tobacco company executive Jeffrey Wigand, the subject of
the movie The Insider, to help Health Canada with research.

Canada is also a key player in negotiations of an international treaty to
reduce the level of smoking worldwide.

The federal Minister of Health was not immediately available to comment on
the issue yesterday, but a spokeswoman said the makeup of the trade
mission was not his responsibility.

Health Canada objected to tobacco growers participating in the mission,
but were overruled by the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of
Foreign Affairs.

In 1997, a Chinese national survey found 70% of the country's 300 million
smokers thought smoking caused little or no harm, making it an ideal
market for Canada's dwindling tobacco growers.

François Lessard, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs, said there was no legal
provision to bar the tobacco group from the mission.

"We don't see their presence on the mission as an unqualified endorsement
by the government of Canada of the group or its products. Our policy
hasn't changed. The government of Canada still wants to undertake
comprehensive measures to reduce tobacco consumption in Canada," he said.

Cynthia Callard, the executive director of Physicians For a Smoke-Free
Canada, said the tobacco growers' participation is in direct conflict with
Health Canada's anti-smoking policies.

George Gilvesy, chairman for the tobacco group, said China represents "a
huge market" for the 1,200 farmers in Southern Ontario who have seen a
steady decline in demand over the past 25 years.

"With falling demand in Canada, we're trying to stabilize our own crop
size and offset domestics losses," Mr. Gilvesy said.