Tobacco.org

TFK: Bush Administration Presses South Korea to Drop Cigarette Tariff, Putting Tobacco Industry's Interests Ahead of Public Health 

In yet another outrageous example of putting the tobacco industry's interests ahead of the public health, the Bush Administration has successfully pressured the South Korean government to scale back plans to impose a 40 percent tariff on imported cigarettes. The South Korean government announced Thursday that it is abandoning plans to impose the 40 percent tariff on July 1 and instead will phase it in over four years.

The administration's actions raise the alarming prospect that it may be reinstating the U.S. government's harmful policy during the 1980s of using the threat of trade sanctions to force foreign governments to repeal or weaken policies to curtail tobacco consumption and marketing within their borders. The world's most powerful nation should not be using its diplomatic and economic might to promote the interests of the tobacco industry and add to the tremendous toll in disease and death that tobacco use takes around the world.

The 1980s policy succeeded in undermining tobacco control efforts in countries such as South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, contributing to an increase in tobacco consumption. In the final days of his presidency, President Clinton issued an executive order stating, "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." Reversing this policy is one of the tobacco industry's top priorities. The South Korea situation is the first indication that the industry may be getting its way.

Jump to full article »