[Intl-tobacco] summers clips: USDA, Tanzania, Japan

[Robert Weissman]

Catching up on old messages not sent, here are three clips:

1. GAO: USDA Agency Breaks Rules Against Tobacco Aid (Washington Post)
2. Tanzania bans public smoking (BBC News)
3. Tobacco Institute of Japan - complaints on tobacco billboards coming down

GAO: USDA Agency Breaks Rules Against Tobacco Aid
By Mark Kaufman
Washington Post
July 2, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60321-2003Jul1.html

Agriculture Department officials are helping American tobacco companies
export their products despite congressional prohibitions against it, the
General Accounting Office reported yesterday. The report specifically
faults the agency's Foreign Agricultural Service for continuing to
supply tobacco export information and helping American companies by
analyzing cigarette and tobacco use abroad, describing where tobacco
control laws might be weak (Zimbabwe) and where consumers appeared to be
interested in American cigarettes (Malaysia and Taiwan).

In addition, the GAO, the watchdog arm of Congress, said that the
service provided information to the office of the U.S. Trade
Representative to support efforts to ease trade barriers to selling
tobacco products in several countries. The GAO report recommended that
the USDA adopt guidelines that better reflect the congressional
restrictions and review all tobacco-related activities of the FAS.

Two lawmakers who pushed for the initial restrictions wrote yesterday to
Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman calling for a full investigation of
FAS policies and suspension of its tobacco-related work until the
question is resolved. The letter, from Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.)
and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), also raised questions about the
service's actions in recent trade negotiations with South Korea and
Chile, and about e-mail traffic between its officials and executives of
Philip Morris Co. regarding the South Korean talks.

"We believe that GAO's findings and the recent e-mail communications
between Philip Morris and USDA raise serious questions about whether the
department has violated congressional prohibitions on the use of federal
funds to promote tobacco exports," the letter said.

In a reply to the GAO report, Foreign Agricultural Service Administrator
A. Ellen Terpstra took issue with some of the conclusions and
recommendations. "We find that the report does not present a balanced or
accurate representations of FAS' responsibilities and actions in this
area," she wrote.

She said that the "market intelligence" her agency supplies is not
directly prohibited by congressional action, and that any forbidden
activities have been stopped. Nonetheless, Terpstra said the agency will
write specific guidance to its personnel overseas making clear what is
allowed and what is not.

With concern rising in the early 1990s about the government's promotion
of tobacco sales abroad, Congress passed a number of bills restricting
that assistance. The initial bill, introduced by Durbin, prohibited the
use of USDA funds to pay the salaries of employees who helped promote
American tobacco products. In 1997, Congress passed a broader bill
sponsored by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) that prohibited the departments
of State, Justice and Commerce, including the U.S. Trade Representative,
from promoting the sale or export of tobacco.

However, that bill allowed the U.S. trade representative to help
American tobacco companies if the government concluded they were the
victims of unfair trade practices. Part of the dispute between the GAO
and the FAS has to do with whether the agency is allowed to work with
the trade representative as outlined in the Doggett bill, or whether it
is prohibited from tobacco work entirely under the Durbin bill.

In their letter to Veneman, Durbin and Waxman reported that a Philip
Morris executive communicated in 2001 by e-mail with, among a small
number of others, an FAS analyst about a tobacco trade dispute with
South Korea that threatened a $100 million American market. According to
Durbin and Waxman, in the e-mails Philip Morris either urged specific
action on the dispute or provided information to U.S. officials,
including the FAS analyst.

"The Foreign Agricultural Service has no business promoting tobacco
products overseas, and the administration should not be doing Philip
Morris's bidding," Waxman said yesterday. "It is illegal and morally
wrong for our government to be promoting the export of a deadly and
addictive product."

A Philip Morris USA official declined to comment, saying the company was
not familiar with the GAO report or the letter to Veneman.

The GAO cited a 2002 FAS tobacco marketing report on South Korea that
said older smokers tend to want cheaper local brands, but "younger
smokers on the other hand tend to be more image-conscious and less
swayed by taxes applied on more expensive products," and a 2002 report
from Taiwan detailed "opportunities and challenges for U.S. tobacco and
tobacco product exports."

Fore more information:

GAO report: USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service Lack Specific Guidance
for Congressional Restrictions on Promoting Tobacco
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs_108/pdf_inves/pdf_tobacco_gao_FAS_rep.pdf

Letter from Durban and Waxman to the USDA:
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs_108/pdf_inves/pdf_tobacco_veneman_FAS_july_1_let.pdf

---------------

Tanzania bans public smoking - BBC News

 July 2, 2003

 Premy Kibanga

 Smoking in public places has been banned in Tanzania under a new law
that came into effect on 1 July. Under the Tobacco Products (regulation)
Act 2003 it is illegal to smoke inside public transport, hospitals,
schools and many other public places. Tobacco is a major foreign
exchange earner and tobacco-growers have condemned the law. It is also
an offence to sell tobacco products to persons under the age of 18. The
government has called for the setting up of special smoking areas at
places of work. Tobacco advertising on radio, TV and in newspapers has
also been prohibited. The government will issue guidelines on sites
where tobacco advertising can be placed.

 A statement by the country's health ministry said the aim of the Act is
to reduce the use of tobacco products in the country in order to reduce
the occurrence of diseases that are brought about by smoking.

 Non-smokers

The new law will also protect non-smokers and educate smokers on the
importance of quitting smoking. This, the government  says, will help to
"create an environment that will help to make the society a non-smoking
one".

>From 1 July, cigarettes manufactured in and outside the country will
have to adhere to international standards and will have to carry a
warning in both English and Kiswahili on the negative effects of
cigarette smoking. The bill was passed by parliament in February.
President Benjamin Mkapa signed it into law in April.

Caution

MPs from the tobacco growing regions cautioned the government against
passing the law, expressing fears that the ruling party might lose votes
from tobacco farmers in the 2005 general election. However, the Minister
for Industry and Trade, Dr Juma  Ngasongwa, says the effects will only
be temporary and that the country has to look at the issue from all
angles.

"After all the ban is a universal issue and people will get used to it".
"We are not worried at all," Dr Ngasongwa said.

---------

July 9, 2003

 Source: Tobacco Institute of Japan

 As cigarette advertisements on billboards come down, maintenance fees
for apartment dwellers go up. `I never thought the ad
 would disappear.'SUSUMU KATASE Chairman of an apartment residents
association. They weren't the most popular apartment
 ``residents.' In fact, they were often branded villains out to destroy
the lives of young people. But now, apartment dwellers around
 Japan are lamenting the loss of these neighbors-the Marlboro Man and
Joe Camel.

 Under international marketing standards and growing pressure from
anti-smoking lobbyists, the tobacco industry here is swiftly
 removing advertising billboards from apartment buildings. The move is
being conducted in the name of health. But some residents
 say there is a more pressing problem: economics. Tobacco companies pay
the residents associations of apartment buildings
 millions of yen a year to display the ads. The cash usually goes into a
fund for maintenance and repairs of the building.

 Kototoi Park Avenue, a 10-story apartment block home to 25 households
in Tokyo's Asakusa, was one such building. The block
 overlooks the Metropolitan Expressway along the Sumidagawa river, an
ideal location for billboard advertising. Fifteen years ago,
 a 6-by-12-meter billboard hawking cigarettes was put up on the roof.
Philip Morris Companies Inc., the U.S. maker of Marlboro
 and other brands, paid 5 million yen a year for the spot. The residents
association set aside that money for repairs.

 But the contract was closed at the end of January last year. The
billboard now sits blank on the roof, the advertisement and the
 revenue gone. The anti-tobacco lobby's gain is a loss for residents at
Kototoi Park Avenue. This month, the association sharply
 raised maintenance fees. ``But the increase still doesn't cover the
loss (of the ad revenue),' says Tsuyoshi Abe, former chairman of
 the residents association. ``We are looking for a new sponsor, but with
the continued economic slump it will not be easy.'

 Across the Sumidagawa in Honjo, Japan Tobacco Inc. removed its
billboard advertisement from the roof of an eight-story
 apartment a year ago. ``We decided to live here because we thought the
billboard would make repair payments cheaper,' says
 Susumu Katase, chairman of the residents association. ``I never thought
the ad would disappear.'

 The number of JT billboards peaked at about 550 in 1994. Hundreds of
other billboards were gobbled up by foreign tobacco
 firms. About 40 percent were on apartment blocks, according to
operators of outdoor billboards. For these operators, tobacco
 companies were collectively the goose that laid the golden egg.

 In 1985, competition for advertising intensified after Japan allowed
foreign cigarette companies to enter the market, according to
 Yuji Hirobe, chairman of All Japan Neon-Sign Association. But the
anti-smoking lobby gained strength, and tobacco companies
 started curbing TV commercials, resulting in big savings in advertising costs.

 Tobacco firms, armed with extra cash and eager to advertise on a
different medium, flooded the billboard market with funds. In
 some cases, the price soared to 10 million yen a year. The good times,
however, were short-lived.

 JT and foreign tobacco firms agreed on an international marketing
standard in 2001 that prohibited cigarette ads on billboards
 exceeding 35 square meters. At the time, there were more than a
thousand oversized billboards. All were removed by the end of
 last year. Prices for billboard space simultaneously dropped to
one-third the peak. ``That meant a reduction of more than 10
 billion yen a year for the billboard industry as a whole,' Hirobe says.

 A rebound in the billboard industry based on cigarette money is
unlikely. In May, the World Health Organization adopted the
 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Members will be required to
ban all tobacco advertising within five years of ratifying
 the treaty. Although Japan has yet to ratify the framework, companies
are already scaling down their ads. ``We will withdraw from
 all outdoor billboards, with the exception of signs with luminescent
devices, by the end of March next year,' a JT spokesman says.


 * * *

 Voluntary ad restraints by the tobacco industry

 April 1985

 * Ban on TV commercials between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

 * Ban on advertisements in women's magazines and magazines with 50
percent of readers underage

 * Ban on advertisements using celebrities and models popular with minors

 August 1987

 * Ban on advertisements using images of smoking women

 January 1989

 * Ban on TV commercials from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.

 October 1995

 * Ban on radio commercials on weekends

 * Ban on outdoor billboards within 100 meters from the front entrance
of elemen tary, junior and senior high schools

 April 1998

 * Ban on all TV and radio commercials

 June 2002

 * Ban on advertising in magazines with more than 25 percent of readers underage

 * Ban on outdoor billboards larger than 35 square meters

 http://www.asahi.com/[...]/K2003070900268.html