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February 23rd, 2012:

Philip Morris International Seeks to Buy Influence over Trade Policy

For Immediate Release: February 23, 2012

Contact: Marie Cocco, 202-296-5469

Philip Morris International Seeks to Buy Influence over Trade Policy

By Sponsoring Exclusive Washington, DC, Event

Government Officials Should Decline to Attend and Protect Health, not Tobacco

Statement of Matthew L. Myers

President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

WASHINGTON, DC – As the United States and other countries negotiate a trade agreement that could impact efforts to reduce tobacco use worldwide, Philip Morris International is trying to buy access and influence by sponsoring an exclusive corporate reception Friday in Washington, DC, that will be attended by top trade and other officials from the countries involved.  We urge government officials not to attend this tobacco industry-sponsored reception and to negotiate a trade agreement that protects public health, not the tobacco industry.  They should protect children and health around the world, not Philip Morris International, a company with a long history of targeting children, deceiving the public and opposing proven measures to reduce tobacco use and save lives.

Philip Morris International – the world’s largest multinational tobacco company – is one of the sponsors of the Governors and Ambassadors World Trade Reception being held at the Willard InterContinental Hotel on Friday evening.  The event is focused on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, a trade agreement the U.S. is negotiating with eight other countries. Listed speakers and attendees include top U.S. trade negotiators, representatives of the other TPP countries and several U.S. state governors (information about the event can be found at: http://www.wita.org/en/cev/1146).  This is clearly an opportunity for Philip Morris International to curry favor and lobby trade negotiators.

Philip Morris International is sponsoring this event just as TPP negotiations are scheduled to resume next week in Melbourne, Australia.  Tobacco companies are working aggressively to ensure that this agreement helps them open new markets for their deadly products, despite the devastating toll in lives and health.

The U.S. and other countries should reject Big Tobacco’s lobbying and protect public health by excluding tobacco from the benefits of the TPP and other trade agreements. Trade agreements are intended to promote and expand trade in beneficial products.  Tobacco products are uniquely lethal, not beneficial. In fact, they are the top cause of preventable death in the U.S. and worldwide.  Tobacco products killed 100 million in the 20th century and are projected to kill one billion people in the 21stcentury unless nations take urgent action to protect health.  Freer trade in tobacco products directly conflicts with the goal of saving lives by stemming this global epidemic.

Philip Morris International’s own actions show exactly why tobacco products should be excluded from the TPP and other trade agreements.  In recent years, Philip Morris International has sued Australia, Uruguay and other countries to overturn measures to reduce tobacco use, claiming they violate trade and investment agreements.  Excluding tobacco products from trade agreements will protect countries’ authority to enact such measures, as countries are obligated to do by the international tobacco control treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Tobacco companies also have a long history of using trade agreements to force open new markets in low- and middle-income countries, sharply increasing tobacco use and related death and disease. Philip Morris International’s most recent fourth quarter report underscored the harmful results, as its sales rose by more than 10 percent in Asia. Philip Morris International and its subsidiaries have engaged in harmful marketing that targets youth, including sponsoring concerts by pop stars and even placing billboard advertisements in Indonesia last year that touted cigarettes as “a cool friend” worth dying for.  At Philip Morris International’s annual meeting last year, the company’s CEO irresponsibly played down the addictiveness of cigarettes, claiming “it is not that hard to quit.”

Trade agreements should not promote or increase use of tobacco products, and they should not prohibit any nation from using its sovereign authority to protect public health by taking action to reduce tobacco use.  The United States and other nations should reject the influence of Philip Morris International and other tobacco companies and protect health, not tobacco.

Caroline Renzulli
International Communications Associate
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
1400 I Street, NW
Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20005
Phone:  202-296-5469

Direct: 202-481-9344

Fax:  202-296-5427
crenzulli@tobaccofreekids.org

global.tobaccofreekids.org

No more “light” and “mild” cigarettes…

http://www.todayonline.com/Print/Singapore/EDC120223-0000140/No-more-light-and-mild-cigarettes,,,

Updated 01:23 PM Feb 23, 2012

SINGAPORE – From March next year, words like “light’, “low-tar” and “mild” will be banned from the packaging of tobacco products, while a new set of graphic warnings will replace current ones.

Also, the maximum tar and nicotine yield levels in cigarettes will be reduced, and current labels indicating tar and nicotine yield levels on cigarette packaging will be replaced with new ones that inform smokers of chemicals other than tar and nicotine in a cigarette.

These are among the changes that will come about following the amendments in 2010 to the Smoking (Control of Advertisements and Sale of Tobacco) Act.

Explaining the changes, Health Promotion Board (HPB) CEO Ang Hak Seng said: “There is no evidence that ‘light’ and ‘mild’ cigarettes are any less harmful. Yet many smokers, who want to quit the habit but found it challenging, tend to switch to cigarettes with these descriptors, because they think these cigarettes are less harmful.”

A survey by the HPB in 2009 found that 63 per cent of smokers believed that “light” cigarettes were less harmful than “regular” cigarettes compared to 28 per cent of smokers who indicated no difference between the two.

“It is, therefore, imperative that Singapore bans such misleading descriptors. The ban on misleading labelling will affect about a quarter of the cigarette brands currently sold in Singapore,” said the HPB.

The maximum tar and nicotine yield levels in cigarettes will be reduced from 15mg and 1.3mg to 10mg and 1.0mg respectively, with the HPB stressing that these are not “safety” limits and “no level of toxicity and addictiveness can be deemed to be safe in cigarettes”.

The graphic health warnings on individual cigarette packs will also be extended to outer packaging such as carton packaging.

And cigarillos will have to be sold in packs of 20 instead of the current 10

The HPB said a briefing session was held this morning to communicate the amendments to the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry has until March next year to implement these changes.

URL http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120223-0000140/No-more-light-and-mild-cigarettes,,,

Copyright 2012 MediaCorp Pte Ltd | All Rights Reserved

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)

http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/regulation-health-and-disability-system/tobacco-control/framework-convention-tobacco-control-fctc

The WHO FCTC was developed in response to the globalised tobacco epidemic. It is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health and has become one of the most rapidly and widely embraced treaties in United Nations history.

Meetings with Tobacco Industry Representatives: 2011 – Present

As a Party to the treaty, New Zealand is also required to observe complete transparency in its dealings with the tobacco industry (article 5.3). As part of this requirement, the Ministry of Health intends to maintains records of all of its meetings with tobacco organisations and their representatives. This practice has been in place since 2011; all records are below.


4 November 2011: Meeting with Philip Morris (New Zealand)

Purpose: To discuss the implementation of the Smoke-free Environment (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Act 2011 particularly in relation to the removal of tobacco displays in shops.

Meeting attendees: Brendon Baker, Antje Heymanns (Ministry of Health), Brett Taylor, Christopher Bishop.


28 October 2011: Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Date: Meeting with Imperial Tobacco New Zealand

Purpose: To discuss the implementation of the Smoke-free Environment (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Act 2011 particularly in relation to the removal of tobacco displays in shops.

Meeting attendees: Brendon Baker, Matthew Everett, John Stribling (Ministry of Health) Paul Klouwens (Tracer Interiors – at the request of the Ministry of Health Paul Warham, Pat Wylie, Cathy Edwards, Brendan Walker (Imperial Tobacco)


28 October 2011: Meeting with British American Tobacco New Zealand

Purpose: To discuss the implementation of the Smoke-free Environment (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Act 2011 particularly in relation to the removal of tobacco displays in shops.

Meeting attendees: Brendon Baker, Matthew Everett, John Stribling (Ministry of Health) Susan Jones, Janice Thein (British American Tobacco New Zealand).