[Intl-tobacco] CSM: On US-Korea and trade and tobacco

[Robert Weissman]

Christian Science Monitor
August 1, 2001

EDITORIAL
Clearing the Smoke, Globally

Years of antismoking activism in the United States have educated most
Americans about the foolishness of the tobacco habit. It's that public
education success that the US should be exporting to the world, launching
programs to help people make responsible choices.

Instead, Washington, too often, does what it can to open overseas markets
to American cigarettes. The latest evidence of this was a Bush
administration move last month to persuade South Korea to halt plans to
raise its tariffs on imported cigarettes by 40 percent. The tariff hike
would have protected South Korea's domestic cigarette makers, but it might
also have cut cigarette consumption a bit.

For Washington to simply pursue business as usual, making tobacco part of
its free-trade agenda, has more than a whiff of hypocrisy. It underscores
the continued potency of the tobacco industry, still a major contributor
to political campaigns.

Tobacco products should not be treated like normal products in
international trade. A global educational effort, to help more people drop
the habit or not take it up, is what's needed.