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• Big Tobacco’s Attempts to Derail the Global Tobacco Treaty: Cases from Battleground Countries (PDF) 

Just over ten years ago, the tobacco industry still denied that its products are addictive and harmful to people’s health. The landscape for Big Tobacco has changed dramatically in the past decade. The global tobacco treaty, which took effect earlier this year, gives the international community tools to stand up to tobacco giants, decrease global addiction rates, and reverse the tobacco epidemic. Formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the treaty is a major step for public health and a huge blow to Big Tobacco.

The global tobacco treaty bans tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and insulates public health policy from interference by tobacco corporations. The treaty’s advertising ban means an end to some of the tobacco industry’s most effective and deadly tactics, like Philip Morris/Altria’s Marlboro Man, in countries that ratify. While Philip Morris/Altria, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) continue to aggressively target developing countries to expand markets for their products, the tobacco giants are renewing their efforts to derail the treaty process in countries around the world.

The role of the United States in the global tobacco treaty stands in stark contrast to the majority of the world’s countries. The Bush Administration's decision to sign the global tobacco treaty with great fanfare in May 2004 appears to have been one in a series of public relations maneuvers to gain positive recognition while working to undermine the world's first public health treaty. Throughout the WHO FCTC negotiating process, the US government took positions that would dilute the treaty. The US opposed the advertising ban, and even opposed excluding the tobacco industry from public health policymaking. The purpose of this report is to make public a few salient examples of tobacco industry interference and to provide new information to the public about how tobacco corporations are currently meddling with health policy around the world. The report highlights one success story in overcoming corporate interference and gives an overview of two cases from battleground countries that represent a breadth of tactics currently being employed by the tobacco industry to derail the treaty process. . . .

Thailand’s case stands out as an impressive example of a developing country successfully overcoming years of powerful tobacco industry interference in health policy. In Nigeria, Big Tobacco is using its economic muscle to try to keep treaty ratification off the table for discussion by manipulating media coverage and influencing government agencies.

Guatemala’s current situation exemplifies the need for Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC— requiring parties to the treaty to protect public health policy from industry interference— and the importance of being vigilant to interference throughout the implementation process. The case of Guatemala also illustrates a new variation of old tobacco industry tricks, where Big Tobacco tries to pull the wool over policymakers’ eyes by advocating “regulation” while drafting legislation that actually weakens or conflicts with the tobacco treaty.

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