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Letter To The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (PDF) 

Re: Comments on Proposed U.S.-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement
Jump to full article: Essential Action, 2006-05-12

Intro:

We are writing to urge that the U.S. exclude tobacco products from a U.S.-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement.

Our basic position is that there is no legitimate purpose for inclusion of tobacco products in trade agreements, which are designed to facilitate trade and remove tariff and non-tariff barriers to commercial transactions -- an inappropriate goal for tobacco products, consumption of which is harmful. This is a consensus view among the leading tobacco control groups in the United States.(1)

In these comments, we first very briefly review tobacco control efforts in Malaysia, and then explain why inclusion of tobacco products in the FTA would threaten such efforts.

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