[Intl-tobacco] New FCTC draft and criticisms

[Robert Weissman]

A new draft of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has been
released. You can view the current drafts at:

http://www.who.int/gb/fctc/PDF/inb6/einb62.doc or
http://www.who.int/gb/fctc/PDF/inb6/einb62.pdf

Chair's note accompanying the new text
http://www.who.int/gb/fctc/PDF/inb6/einb63.pdf

The reaction from public health groups is almost unanimously critical.
Statements from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the Network Against
Tobacco Transnationals and ASH UK, plus a clip from the Financial Times,
follow below.


Financial Times

WHO unveils anti-tobacco pact
By Frances Williams in Geneva
Published: January 16 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: January 16 2003 4:00

The World Health Organisation yesterday unveiled the final draft of an
international tobacco control pact due to be concluded next month. The agen=
cy
said the pact would help cut deaths from cancer, heart disease,
emphysema and
other smoking-related illnesses.

However, anti-tobacco activists immediately denounced the draft,
claiming WHO
had bowed to pressure from the US, Germany and Japan to weaken key
provisions, especially on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship wh=
ere
the great majority of countries had pressed for a total ban.

"The new text is a feeble response to the world's worst public health probl=
em",
said Clive Bates, director of UK-based Action on Smoking and Health (Ash),
calling cigarettes "the original weapons of mass destruction".

According to WHO, smoking killed 4.9m people worldwide last year and this
figure is forecast to double by the late 2020s if no action is taken.

"Yielding to pressure from the US, Japan and Germany puts the interests of
Philip Morris, BAT and Japan Tobacco befor e the public health of people ar=
ound
the world", said Kathryn Mulvey of Infact, a US group that campaigns for
corporate accountability.

The WHO's 192 members will hold a final round of negotiations next month on
the framework convention on tobacco control, covering such issues as
advertising, smuggling, taxation, labelling and health warnings, with
the aim of
sending it to the WHO's ministerial assembly in May.

The convention, which has been under discussion since 1999, will be the wor=
ld's
first international public health treaty.

Luis Felipe de Seixas Corr=EAa, Brazil's ambassador in Geneva who chairs th=
e
tobacco talks and who drew up the revised draft text, defended it yesterday=
,
saying tough provisions could result in a weak treaty if key countries
refused to
join. The United States, for instance, says its constitution makes it
impossible to
implement a blanket ban on tobacco advertising.



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Nicole Dueffert
January 15, 2003
202-296-5469

Statement of Judith Wilkenfeld, Director of International Programs

Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids
New Draft Text for International Tobacco Treaty Bows to U.S. By
Protecting Tobacco Industry Instead of Public Health

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 15, 2003) - The latest draft text of the
proposed international tobacco control treaty, the Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control (FCTC), released
today is a disappointing step backwards that does not reflect the
positions supported by the vast majority of nations during the last
negotiating session in October. Instead, it
reflects the much weaker positions taken by the United States and the
tobacco industry, led by Philip Morris. This draft of the treaty does
more to protect business as usual for Big
Tobacco than it does to save lives and improve health around the world.
It appears that the U.S. is acting behind closed doors to undermine the
will of the vast majority of nations.
Sadly, all the world's children will pay the price.

The critical final round of treaty negotiations is scheduled for Feb.
17-28 in Geneva, Switzerland. If the treaty text is not significantly
strengthened at that time, the world's nations
will have missed an unprecedented opportunity to address a global health
epidemic that already kills more than four million people every year,
and the United States will bear much of
the blame. It is unconscionable that the latest treaty text bows to the
wishes of the United States and other nations that are home to large
tobacco manufacturers at the expense of
developing nations that are the latest targets of the tobacco industry.
The United States should reverse course and act to protect the public
health rather than the tobacco industry.
At the very least, if the United States does not want to support a
strong treaty, it should not stand in the way of other nations' efforts
to protect the health of their citizens. The
many nations that have fought for a strong treaty should continue their
efforts and refuse to accept a treaty that does not give them the tools
they need to protect public health. The
current draft treaty gives the tobacco industry a green light to
continue their assault on the developing world.

 Rather than obligating nations to take strong actions to protect the
public health, the new draft of the treaty merely suggests weak steps
that they could take. It is especially weak
on the following key issues:

 * Advertising: Despite strong support from a large majority of nations
for a total ban on tobacco advertising to the extent permitted by each
nation's constitution, the treaty fails to
call for an ad ban. Instead the watered down treaty calls on governments
to impose gradual restrictions on tobacco advertising but requires
nothing. The United States has led
efforts against the ad ban provision, supported by a majority of the
nations during the most recent public negotiating session. The new draft
also deletes a previous provision
supported by most countries "phasing out" sponsorship of sporting events
by the tobacco companies, which is an important means of reaching
children and other key audiences for
the tobacco industry.


 * Misleading descriptors such as "light" and "low tar": Public health
experts from around the world have urged that the treaty prohibit the
terms "light" and "low tar". The U.S. has not
supported a ban on these terms despite the conclusions of a November
2001 report by the National Cancer Institute that the use of such terms
is "deceptive", has misled consumers
into believing such cigarettes are less harmful, and constitute  "an
urgent public health issue." The draft text does not explicitly ban
these misleading terms, but rather places the
burden of proof on nations to show that these terms are used in a way
that creates a false impression that a product is less harmful. The
tobacco industry has consistently shown
that it will use every means to challenge bans on such terms.

 * Warning labels: The draft treaty's provisions on warning labels are
weak and less specific than are needed to reduce cigarette consumption.



* Secondhand smoke: The draft treaty lacks any meaningful provisions on
secondhand smoke that would obligate countries to protect the public
health from exposure to secondhand
tobacco smoke in public places.



* Trade: The majority of countries have supported a provision to protect
tobacco control measures from trade challenges, while the United States
had led the fight against such a
provision. The treaty should recognize that the lethal nature of tobacco
products requires that they be treated differently from the beneficial
products to which the international trade
rules normally apply.

 The Chair's text can be found at:
 http://www.who.int/gb/fctc/PDF/inb6/einb62.doc

 Fewer than five percent of the world's smokers live in the U.S.
Worldwide, more than four million people die each year from tobacco use.
If current trends continue, tobacco will kill
10 million people a year by 2020; 70 percent of those deaths will occur
in developing countries.



Reverse Global Tobacco Epidemic
                Wednesday January 15, 10:06 am ET

Leading into Final Round of Treaty Talks, New Draft Does Not Reflect
Strong Positions Taken by
Great Majority of Countries on Issues Such as Tobacco Advertising and
Prioritizing Public Health
Over Trade

GENEVA, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The US-based corporate accountability
organization Infact and other members of the Network for
Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) are denouncing a draft
of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
released today as too weak to reverse the global tobacco epidemic. The
new treaty draft produced by the Chair of the negotiating
body slides backwards from the positions advocated by the great majority
of countries in key areas such as tobacco promotion and
prioritizing public health over trade in tobacco.

"At the most recent round of treaty talks, we saw that
the great majority of nations in the world are committed
to an FCTC that prioritizes public health over the profits
of transnational tobacco corporations. Rather than
building on the progress made at the October talks, the
Chair seems to have given in to the demands of a
handful of wealthy nations-namely the US, Japan and
Germany-in some of the treaty's most critical areas,"
says Kathryn Mulvey, Executive Director of Infact, a
US-based corporate accountability organization and
member of NATT.

Throughout the negotiations, coordinated global action
to curb aggressive promotion of tobacco with images
like Philip Morris's Marlboro Man has been seen as
integral to the FCTC. When FCTC negotiators last
gathered in October 2002, the overwhelming majority
were strongly in favor of a total ban on tobacco
advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Only a handful
of countries where the tobacco transnationals have
major interests, led by the US, Japan and Germany,
opposed an ad ban. Yet today's draft is reduced to a
series of suggestions that fall far short of prohibiting
tobacco promotion-essentially deferring action on this
urgent measure.

The FCTC also has the opportunity to establish a
precedent of subordinating commercial interests in a
deadly product to health concerns. However, the current draft fails to
take a decisive stand in prioritizing public over trade in
tobacco. At the most recent talks more than 100 countries were
advocating treaty language that would prioritize public health when
the FCTC comes into conflict with international trade and investment
agreements. The text released today does not include any
language that would prioritize health over trade.

"Having analyzed the new Chair's Text of the FCTC released today, we are
deeply concerned that it falls far short of measures
necessary to reverse the global tobacco epidemic and hold tobacco
transnationals accountable for the harms they cause to people,
economies and the environment. For example, the treaty draft fails to
prioritize public health over trade, and does not include the
total ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship advocated by
many countries-including the African and South East
Asian regions, and 24 European countries," says Akinbode Oluwafemi of
Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria-also a NATT member.

Infact and NATT, which includes 75 consumer, human rights,
environmental, faith-based, public health and corporate accountability
NGOs spanning 50 countries, believe the FCTC must:

Prioritize public health in the event of conflict with international
trade and investment agreements;

Ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship;

Protect public health policy from interference by tobacco corporations;

Ensure that tobacco corporations can be held liable for harms to people
and the environment, while facilitating the ability of individuals and
governmental bodies to be compensated for the high costs of tobacco;

Establish a funding mechanism to speed up conversion to sustainable
alternatives to tobacco and make it more politically viable for
governments to support the FCTC; and

Contain binding obligations with specific timelines and penalties for
non-compliance, rather than voluntary measures.

In one of the most serious examples of backsliding, the current draft
calls into question the tobacco industry's responsibility for the
harms its products cause. The tobacco giants are notorious for their
misleading and deceptive conduct. According to Infact and
NATT, the FCTC must include strong liability and compensation provisions
to deter tobacco corporations from future harms and hold
them accountable for their past egregious behavior.

On the positive side, the Chair's draft of the FCTC includes provisions
for monitoring the tobacco corporations, their affiliates and
subsidiaries like Philip Morris's Kraft Foods. The text also calls for
the protection of public health policy from tobacco industry
interference. Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco and British American Tobacco
(B.A.T) have used their influence to water down and defeat
public health policy even in the wealthiest countries.

Ambassador Luis Felipe de Seixas Correa, the Chair of the FCTC's
Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, prepared today's draft.
According to the World Health Organization, nearly 5 million people die
every year from tobacco-related illnesses.

"As we enter into the final round of treaty talks next month, Infact and
NATT are calling on treaty negotiators to ask themselves
whether the Marlboro Men of the transnational tobacco industry can live
with this treaty. If the answer is yes, then the world is in
danger of having wasted years of time and precious resources. Yielding
to pressure from the US, Japan and Germany puts the
interests of Philip Morris, B.A.T and Japan Tobacco before the public
health of people around the world," concludes Mulvey.

Since 1977, Infact has been exposing life-threatening abuses of
transnational corporations and organizing successful grassroots
campaigns to hold corporations accountable to consumers and society at
large. Infact is an NGO in Official Relations with the World
Health Organization (WHO). The Network for Accountability of Tobacco
Transnationals (NATT) includes 75 NGOs from more than 50
countries working for a strong, enforceable Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control. For more information visit www.infact.org.

Contacts:
Patti Lynn/Infact, Boston, MA, USA
617.695.2525

---------


ASH news release:  Immediate - Wednesday 15th January 2003

ASH says new WHO tobacco treaty text is a =91feeble response=92 to the glob=
al
tobacco epidemic

Commenting on the release of a new text for the WHO Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control, ASH criticised the new text as failing to offer any
kind of
proportionate response to the global epidemic of tobacco related disease =
=96
now killing almost 5 million people per year (4.9 million).

Clive Bates, Director of the anti-tobacco campaigning group ASH, said:

Cigarettes are the original weapons of mass destruction, with over five
trillion of these biological and chemical devices released into society eac=
h
year addicting and then killing one in two users and likely to cause a
billion deaths in the 21st Century if no credible action is taken. The new
text a feeble response to the world=92s worst public health problem.

They=92ve started to judge the text by what they think the Americans, Germa=
ns
and Japanese will sign up to =96 but we have to look at whether it will
actually deliver a meaningful response to the epidemic of tobacco related
disease.  It=92s not as bad as we feared, but nothing like as good as it ne=
eds
to be.

The biggest disappointment is over tobacco advertising, which is the vector
that spreads tobacco diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and
emphysema.  If the WHO can=92t get agreement to rid the world of tobacco
advertising then it can=92t claim to be making a serious response. Almost a=
ll
the language is voluntary and weak and very little of the text commits
countries to actually taking action.

More positively, there are some improvements in the language in the area of
labelling, which now requires 30% of the pack to have a warning label and
also the Chair has removed the clauses that subordinate the tobacco treaty
to free-trade.  On smuggling the general commitments might be useful, but
only if more work is done to give them specific meaning, for example throug=
h
a protocol.

ASH is calling on the progressive majority of states in the negotiations to
take the Chair=92s text and draw up a document that reflects the best
evidence-based practice.  There should be no question about banning tobacco
advertising agreeing tough measures that will be a model for tackling the
tobacco epidemic =96 even if that means leaving Japan, Germany and the Unit=
ed
States out of the treaty.

There are now just ten days of talking left to get this treaty on track.
 We
hope that the great majority =96 especially from Africa, Asia and Latin
America =96 will fight hard for a treaty that actually tackles the problem,
rather than just vaguely acknowledges it.



Contact: Clive Bates +44 20 7739 5902 (w) +44 77 6879 1237 (m) ISDN
available

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