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• Myanmar Media Stress Control Of Tobacco Consumption 

Myanmar official media Monday warned of the danger of tobacco, calling on the people to actively participate in the control of tobacco consumption, reports Xinhua news agency quoting a local daily.

According to the New Light of Myanmar, Health Minister Dr Kyww Myint stressed the need to organize the citizens to know the danger of tobacco and to join in tobacco consumption control.

He made these remarks in the wake of the warning by the World Health Organization (WHO) that consumption of tobacco and tobacco products killed over five million people yearly and the use of tobacco remained the main factor of causing diseases in the year 2020.

The WHO has designated the motto "Tobacco Health Warning" for this year with a view to enabling the people to understand the danger of tobacco by printing the health warning on packages of tobacco.

According to the paper, Myanmar marked the World No Tobacco Day- 2009 in Nay Pyi Taw ceremonially on Sunday.

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• Myanmar seeks zero-duty access for tobacco products  

Myanmar is asking the Philippines for zero duty access for the exports of tobacco and cigarette products. Similar requests were also filed by Myanmar to Thailand and Malaysia.

The Tariff Commission will conduct a public hearing today on the Myanmar request along with the review of the expiring zero duty rates on imported cement and wheat.

At present, Tariff Commission official said that tobacco and cigarette products are included under the ASEAN Integration System of Preferences and as such ASEAN slapped tobacco with three percent tariff and cigarette at five percent.

The AISP is a scheme where ASEAN 6 gives unilateral import duty exemption to products of export interests to the CLMV ( Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam ).

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• Myanmar reiterates ban on cigarette, liquor advertisements 

Myanmar has reiterated ban on advertisements of cigarette and liquor, warning that such advertisement billboards erected in the Yangon municipal area, will be removed if found, the local Myanmar Newsweek reported Wednesday.

Quoting Yangon Mayor Brigadier-General Aung Thein Lin, the report said the ban aims at preventing immature youths from being absorbed in smoking and drinking, and from leading a wrong path of life.

Myanmar has prohibited smoking in university campuses in the country since December 2006 in an effort to create tobacco-smoke-free environment for the health of the university students. . . .

Meanwhile, the Myanmar health authorities have stressed the need to expand the country's anti-tobacco campaign to rural areas where smokers, especially women, are high in number. . . .

Myanmar has been committed to controlling tobacco consumption by ratifying the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It became a signatory to the convention in September 2003and was the 11th out of 192 countries to ratify the convention.

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• The Control of Smoking and Consumption of Tobacco Product Law 

3. The objectives of this Law are as follows;

(a) to convince the public that health can be adversely affected due to smoking and consumption of tobacco product and to cause refraining from the use of the same;

(b) to protect from the danger which affects public health adversely by creating tobacco smoke-free environment;

(c) to obtain a healthy living style of the public including child and youth by preventing the habit of smoking and consumption of tobacco product;

(d) to uplift the health, economy and social standard of the public through control of smoking and consumption of tobacco product;

(e) to implement measures in conformity with the international convention ratified by Myanmar to control smoking and consumption of tobacco product;

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• British American Tobacco to sell its holding in Myanmar (Burma) (PDF) 

Michael Prideaux, Director, Corporate & Regulatory Affairs, said: “The sale agreement follows the exceptional formal request by the British Government in July for us to reconsider our investment in the joint venture. As a UK-based multinational, we have taken the request seriously.

“We believe the solution is a balanced outcome to a difficult dilemma. We will sell our share in the Rothmans of Pall Mall Myanmar joint venture, while ensur ing its continuing stability as a going concern that can maintain local employment opportunities and the orderly and responsible local marketing of our brands. We expect the arrangement to meet the British Government’s requirement.

“We are leaving our role in Rothmans of Pall Mall Myanmar with regret, as our managers have established it as one of Burma’s best employers, operating to high standards of business practice and corporate responsibility. We have been assured that the new owners of our 60% share aim to maintain the company’s high operating standards and the best possible employment prospects for its 500 employees.”

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• BAT to extinguish business in Myanmar 

Cigarette giant British American Tobacco (BAT) is pulling out of Myanmar following a request by the British government to withdraw due to human rights concerns, it said on Thursday.

The announcement marks a major turnaround for BAT, which had for years resisted intense pressure from human rights activists to pull out of the country, long condemned for its human rights record.

BAT said it was selling its 60-percent stake in a cigarette factory it co-owns with the Myanmar's military government to Singapore-based Distinction Investment Holdings, which already held a small share of the venture.

However the company vigorously defended the Rothmans of Pall Mall Myanmar business, saying it was withdrawing only because the British government had asked it to do so.

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• Stinking shrimp story follows BAT from Burma to bin 

British American Tobacco - under fire in the UK over its refusal to withdraw from Burma - has caused a stink in the United States because of some mysterious seafood imports.

A shipment of shrimps with the name of BAT subsidiary Rothmans of Pall Mall stamped all over it was impounded by the American food and drug administration and deemed unfit for human consumption.

The world's number two cigarette maker appears to have become involved in the unusual trade through an attempt to win foreign currency for its controversial business in Burma, otherwise known as Myanmar. . .

BAT said last night it was baffled by the report.

"I have no idea how our name came to be attached to the shrimp exports," a London-based spokeswoman for the company said.

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• British American Tobacco 'frustration' at Burma calls 

British American Tobacco has launched its second corporate social responsibility report and its chairman Martin Broughton took the opportunity to express 'frustration' with the UK government's urging of the company to withdraw from Burma.

The company, which pulled off a significant coup with its first CSR report in being awarded ACCA's 'Best First Time Reporter' award, has been under considerable pressure as the last UK company to retain a presence in Burma since the arrest and detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Martin Broughton said that the company was still considering a formal request by the government for the company to withdraw, but believed that this was a matter for the government to decide. It was not, he suggested, for the government to refrain from putting in place sanctions against Burma but to then call for companies to take action instead. . . .

The company's report, 156 pages long, covers all aspects of the company's approach to product responsibility, supply chain management, environment and workplace. It uncovers the company's broad framework for corporate social responsibility, which was produced in collaboration with the Institute for Business Ethics.

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• BAT digs in over Burma cigs sales 

CIGARETTES giant British American Tobacco today angered human rights groups, saying it would not be steam-rollered into withdrawing from Burma despite an official request from the Government.

BAT said it had not made a final decision on the issue, but it made it clear that it had been irritated by pressure applied by Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien.

BAT had been expected to use the announcement of its interim results to say that it is selling its 60% stake in a cigarette factory near Rangoon, a joint venture with the Burmese government. . . .

'We stayed in Argentina during the Falklands War and in South Africa throughout apartheid. We believe that human rights in the workplace is for us and human rights in general are for the Government.'

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• Tobacco firm challenges minister over calls to quit Burma 

British American Tobacco yesterday hit back at ministerial calls for it to withdraw from Burma because of the country's human rights record, challenging the government to either impose sanctions on the military regime or mind its own business.

Earlier this month foreign office minister Mike O'Brien had summoned BAT chairman Martin Broughton to a meeting and appealed to him to pull out of Burma, where government crackdowns in recent months have led to the re-arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and, allegedly, to the killing of up to 100 of her supporters.

Mr Broughton yesterday insisted he was still considering Mr O'Brien's request but a spokesman later made clear the BAT chairman was "frustrated" at being asked to take a decision he believes should fall to government.

"It is not an issue for businesses to decide," the BAT spokesman said, making a distinction between "human rights in the workplace" - such as pensions, pay and conditions - over which businesses have a responsibility and "wider human rights", which are a matter for politicians.

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• BAT's Chinese deal stuck in neutral 

FEW outsiders have made money in China, as British American Tobacco is finding out. It is more than two years since BAT hailed the deal that would allow it to return to the market it dominated until Mao's revolution in 1947.

BAT signed a joint venture with the State tobacco monopoly. But BAT now says: 'We've given up predicting when we'll get the go ahead.' It admits this year's change in leadership of the Communist party has 'slowed things down' even further.

Chairman Martin Broughton emphasised the prize is worth waiting for. . .

BAT is expected to start moves within the next few days to unload its 60% stake in a cigarette plant in Burma

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• BAT set to sell off its stake in Burma 

British American Tobacco is expected to make discreet moves in the next few days to find a buyer for its 60 per cent stake in a cigarette factory in Burma. The move is to meet a request by the UK Government to withdraw from the country, where there have been widespread human rights abuses.

BAT, whose deputy chairman is former Conservative Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, has said it would put the request to its board after Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien asked chairman Martin Broughton to pull out.

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• Tobacco company asked to withdraw from Burma 

The Foreign Office has asked British American Tobacco (BAT) to withdraw its investment in Burma after the Government expressed concern over the country's human rights record.

The Foreign Office request comes a week after the Prime Minister stated that the UK does not believe that trade or investment in Burma is appropriate when the regime continues to suppress the basic human rights of its people.

BAT is considering the request and will give a formal reply soon.

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• UK tobacco giant BAT reviewing presence in Myanmar 

British American Tobacco (London:BATS.L) said on Thursday it was reviewing its presence in Myanmar after the UK government asked it to withdraw from the country where pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being held.

Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien met chairman Martin Broughton on Wednesday and asked BAT to "consider its investment" in Myanmar, said a spokeswoman for the world's second largest tobacco company.

"We will be doing this over the next few weeks and responding to the government in due course," she said.

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• Govt urges BAT to withdraw from troubled Myanmar 

The government has asked tobacco giant BAT to pull out of strife-torn Myanmar, the Foreign Office said.

It said that junior foreign minister Mike O'Brien had made the request at a meeting with BAT (British American Tobacco) chairman Martin Broughton.

"Mr Broughton agreed to consider the request and to give a formal reply soon," the Foreign Office said in a written statement following the meeting.

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