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Tobacco firms ‘obstructing global treaty’ 

THE tobacco industry in Southeast Asia is “systematically obstructing” the implementation of a global treaty on curbing smoking and tobacco use, a regional advocacy network warns.�

Since it took effect in 2005, the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in the region has been undermined by “insidious tactics” of Big Tobacco, the Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (Seatca) said.

“The abuses of corporations like Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International have ranged from attempting to write tobacco-control laws and blocking the passage of key legislations in the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia, and using so-called corporate social responsibility [CSR] to circumvent laws and regulations in Thailand,�Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines,” Seatca said in a press release.

At a panel discussion during the14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) in Mumbai, Seatca director Bungon Ritthiphakdee said, “Tobacco-industry interference has been the No.1 obstacle to the WHO FCTC implementation, and countries in the Asean and its neighbors now see protections against this interference as the strongest factor of the treaty.” . . .

Seatca’s conference statement said Article 5.3 of the FCTC “is based on the premise that in public health programs, the tobacco industry is the problem, and NOT a stakeholder.”

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