Tobacco.org

• 700,000 Health Professionals in the Americas Pledge To Combat Tobacco 

More than 520 health professional and support organizations from throughout the Americas are joining together to support tobacco control activities and to advocate for governments to ratify and implement the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The organizations have more than 700,000 members and workers in 30 countries.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) invited health professional organizations to sign the "Declaration of the Americas" to increase awareness and motivate action by health professionals to mark World No Tobacco Day, May 31.

This year's theme, "Health Professionals Against Tobacco," calls on health professionals and their associations to be on the front lines of efforts to reduce tobacco use, which claims more than a million lives every year in the Americas.

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• Exclude tobacco from Americas trade pact: US lawmakers 

US lawmakers called on the White House to exclude tobacco products from a proposed pan-American free-trade pact because lower tariffs would make it easier for tobacco companies to recruit new smokers in Latin America.

"We urge you to insist that tobacco products, including cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, be excluded from this trade-promoting agreement," the lawmakers wrote in a letter co-signed to US President George W. Bush .

Representatives Henry Waxman of California, Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois made their plea as top trade officials from 34 countries prepared to meet in Miami later this week for the final phase of negotiations to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

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• U.S. Should Protect Public Health and Exclude Tobacco From Proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas 

This week, trade negotiators from the United States and 33 other nations will meet in Miami to negotiate the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). We strongly urge the U.S. and other countries to recognize the uniquely harmful nature of tobacco products and exclude such products from any trade agreement. U.S. policy should be to do everything we can to reduce tobacco use and its tremendous toll in health, lives and money around the world, and not to help the tobacco companies export and sell more of their deadly products overseas.

The FTAA negotiations are occurring amid evidence that the Bush Administration may be abandoning an executive order issued by President Clinton that stated, "In the implementation of international trade policy, executive departments and agencies shall not promote the sale or export of tobacco or tobacco products, or seek the reduction or removal of foreign government restrictions on the marketing and advertising of such products."

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• Tobacco Firms Scramble To Build Russian Brands  

Tobacco companies are scrambling to build their brands in Russia, while they still can.

As tobacco restrictions gain traction around the world, tobacco advertisers are focusing their efforts on markets with fewer barriers. Russia is one of the most appealing markets, though it may not be open to tobacco advertising much longer.

Russia is expected to ban tobacco ads in 2004. Once a ban goes into effect, it becomes harder to build the image of a brand, especially one sold on prestige rather than price. It's hard to convince customers that a new cigarette label is glamorous without some sort of advertising. So tobacco ad-spending often rises sharply just before a ban is instituted; analysts expect that to happen this year in Russia.

For the moment, Russia still allows tobacco ads in posters and print, and its smokers are acquiring a taste for pricier cigarettes. . .

In mature tobacco markets, such as the U.S. and many countries of the European Union, cigarette sales volumes are declining. And while the U.S. market is big, at about 390 billion individual cigarettes sold annually, tobacco companies -- hamstrung by advertising restrictions -- are increasingly forced to compete on price there. The discounts eat into profits.

That leaves the companies to concentrate their advertising in countries like Russia, where analysts estimate volume is growing at about 2% annually, with about 280 billion individual cigarettes sold last year. Greece is another place cigarette makers can still pitch their product

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