[Intl-tobacco] INB-3 Online News - 20/11/01]

[Robert Weissman]

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  INB-3 Online News - 20/11/01
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Headlines:

USA/FCTC: Administration Accused on Tobacco - Washington Post
Bush's tobacco policies assailed - Atlanta Journal-Constitution/L.A. Times
U.S. Negotiators Promoted Philip Morris's Changes to Global Tobacco
Treaty - US House of Representatives/Committee on Government
Reform/Minority Office
Letter to President Bush (PDF) - Office of Rep. Henry Waxman
Philip Morris's Requests to the Administration (PDF) - Office of Rep.
Henry Waxman
Lung Association Calls on White House To Reject Big Tobacco's Influence
in Negotiating Global Tobacco Control Treaty - U.S. Newswire

CHINA/FCTC: Chinese Delegation Sets out for Negotiation at WHO -
TobaccoChina Online

UK/EU: Cigarette and drink tax too high, EU says - The Times
 
GREECE/EU: Greek Farmers Protest Planned EU Tobacco Subsidy Cuts - Wall
Street Journal/AP

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Full texts and summaries:

U.S. Negotiators Promoted Philip Morris's Changes to Global Tobacco
Treaty - US House of Representatives/Committee on Government
Reform/Minority Office

Yesterday's edition of GTN included a Los Angeles Times article in which
Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform
Committee, "accused the Bush administration... of marching in lock-step
with Big Tobacco to undermine or eliminate serious global regulations to
curb tobacco use." The text of Rep. Waxman's letter to President George
W. Bush is available as a 12-page PDF document from the Committee
website, and is accompanied by a link to an earlier document outlining
the position of Philip Morris. Waxman's concluding charge reads:
"Congress and the American public deserve a full explanation for why
your negotiators have attempted to undermine the Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control." A Washington Post follow-up to the L.A. Times piece is
also linked below.

News links:
Administration Accused on Tobacco - Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54667-2001Nov19.html
Bush's tobacco policies assailed - Atlanta Journal-Constitution/L.A. Times
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_b39f4fc42700e1b10054.html

Minority Office press release link:
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/
Correspondence links:
Letter to President Bush (PDF) - Office of Rep. Henry Waxman
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs/pdf_inves/pdf_tobacco_philip_morris_let.pdf
Philip Morris's Requests to the Administration (PDF) - Office of Rep.
Henry Waxman
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs/pdf_inves/pdf_tobacco_philip_morris_rep.pdf

ALA Press release link:
Lung Association Calls on White House To Reject Big Tobacco's Influence
in Negotiating Global Tobacco Control Treaty - U.S. Newswire
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/1119-105.html

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Chinese Delegation Sets out for Negotiation at WHO - TobaccoChina Online

...The Chinese delegation was headed by Xiong Bilin, deputy director of
the industrial development department of the State Planning and
Development Commission. Representatives were from the State Tobacco
Monopoly Administration, the State Planning and Development Commission,
the State Economy and Trade Commission, the Foreign Ministry, and Health
Ministry and the National Academy of Preventive Medical Sciences...

News link:
http://www.tobaccochina.com/english/news.asp?id=2569

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Cigarette and drink tax too high, EU says - The Times
 
The Times of London reports that high taxes on smokers and drinkers in
Britain "were condemned yesterday by a European Commissioner visiting
Tony Blair. “Excise taxes in this country are very high — they are the
highest in the European Union,” said Frits Bolkestein, the internal
market commissioner, who wants greater tax harmony between EU members.
He used his first visit to Downing Street to call on the Prime Minister
to cut taxes on cigarettes and alcohol and to stop impounding
holidaymakers’ cars if they exceed personal allowances. “A quarter of
all cigarettes in this country are smuggled - a loss of £4.5 billion to
the UK Treasury,” he said before the meeting. “So there is an advantage
to some degree of harmonisation... Seizing vehicles because drivers had
exceeded their allowances of tobacco or drink was a “disproportionate”
response, he added... Mr Bolkestein also handed Mr Blair a Gallup survey
of 4,000 companies from across the 15 EU states showing that complex regulat!
ions put Britain bottom of the league of European countries where it is
easiest to trade.

News link:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,10-2001532893,00.html

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Greek Farmers Protest Planned EU Tobacco Subsidy Cuts - Wall Street Journal/AP

The AP reports from Thessaloniki: "Thousands of farmers protested Monday
against European Union plans to slash subsidies for tobacco production.
More than 7,000 people joined a rally in this northern Greek city,
police said. Farmers from France, Germany other European Union countries
as well as leaders from European farmer federations were also present.
In Trikala, 328 kilometers north of Athens, about 1,000 farmers drove
their tractors through the town to demonstrate over tobacco subsidies.
Protesters argue that subsidy cuts would destroy Greece's large tobacco
farming industry. The government said it would side with Italy and Spain
at a meeting of E.U. farm ministers in Brussels to try and prevent an
amendment that would gradually reduce tobacco subsidies until they are
totally eliminated. "Right now ... The European Union has not made any
decisions," Premier Costas Simitis said Monday. "Greece will oppose any
such move.""

News link:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=DI-CO-20011119-003937.djml


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Stan Shatenstein
Editor, GLOBALink Tobacco News
5492-B Trans Island
Montreal, Quebec, Canada  H3W 3A8
Tel:  (1) 514-486-1243
Fax: (1) 514-486-6894
E-mail: shatensteins@sympatico.ca
 
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