trade and the legal assault on foreign nations
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Why? The Trans-Pacific Partnership Cigarettes Online, TPP, the full text of which has yet to be released, appears to treat tobacco as the unique, noxious weed that it is. Accordingly, Big T and its products are not expected to receive the benefit of the denied access to an overhauled international dispute settlement panel, it may have to cease bullying sovereign nations who try to reduce smoking within their borders. The latest surgeon general's report estimates that smoking continues to accrue significant costs Carton Of Newport 100S, however, between $289 billion and $333 billion a year for medical care and lost productivity in the United States. Nonetheless, the tobacco industry presses on; it spends upwards of $23 million a day, yes, a day, to keep smokers smoking and to attract new ones. The industry seems willing to undertake any cost and abuse any agreement in order to keep selling the poisonous weed. The public's health? Not a concern. Branding and expanding market share, that's the ticket! And so Cheap Cigarettes, to protect its investment abroad - and to increase sales in developing markets - Big T has taken to bullying sovereign nations that have the temerity to try to protect the health of their citizens. As nations try to regulate cigarettes by requiring warning labels, for example, Big Tobacco has been using trade and investment agreements to challenge and intimidate them. Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, that aims to reduce smoking by encouraging limits on advertising, packaging and sale of tobacco products. More than 170 countries have signed it since it took effect in 2005. In Africa, at least four countries faced blatant intimidation from the industry: Namibia Marlboro Red Cigarettes, Gabon, Togo and Uganda. Their laws, the industry asserts, run afoul of international treaties. Many developing countries are at a disadvantage in investment cases because they do not have the specialized legal expertise or financial resources to fight. Uruguay, for example, acknowledged that it would have had to drop its tobacco control law and settle with Philip Morris International if Michael R. Bloomberg's philanthropic foundation had not paid to defend the law. (Philip Morris International's net revenue last year was $77 billion, by the way, substantially more than Uruguay's gross domestic product!) Even developed countries like Canada and New Zealand, have backed away from planned tobacco laws in the face of investment treaty claims. As unbelievable as it may seem, now, in the early 1990s, the American government used to pressure countries to open their markets to American tobacco companies. As smoking rates in some of these countries rose, outrage grew, and President Bill Clinton issued an executive order in 2001 that banned the United States government from lobbying on the industry's behalf. negotiated the trade agreement with the Pacific Rim countries, key players were watching to be sure that the emerging agreement included language to protect nations from legal challenges by tobacco companies, to stop the bullying of sovereign governments. Chamber of Commerce, Big T's BFF, advocate and big-time lobbyist, here and abroad (with foreign governments) and, of course, Big T itself. Well, they may have lost this round Tobacco Store, but we haven't heard the last from this crowd by any means. There will be intense pressure for changes in the agreement or to kill it altogether. The lobbying assault on Congress - and inside Congress - is already under way. Once President Barack Obama signs the agreement, however, Congress can only ratify or reject it Marlboro Menthol. No changes allowed. The administration simply has to hold firm. Tobacco is an industry that aggressively markets and promotes lethal and addictive products and continues to recruit youth and young adults regardless of the research results on the effects of their products. More than three-quarters of the world's smokers now live in the developing world. Without effective interventions, seven million in the developing countries will die annually from tobacco use. How in good conscience can we help Big T fight the efforts of nations to limit smoking and tobacco sales? Big Tobacco will not go away. This is an industry that has declared war on those trying to protect the public's health. Every progressive step we can take against it, here and abroad, needs to be taken. The health of citizens everywhere demands it.
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