August 26, 2013
A little over a week after the Obama Administration caved to pressure from the tobacco industry and dropped the idea of its already tepid efforts to prevent the tobacco companies from turning the pending Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement into another tool to fight public health regulations, Malaysia has proposed a "carve out" for tobacco to protect tobacco control regulations.
Public health advocates here in the US should continue to pressure President Obama to accept Malaysia's proposal. More important, advocates in Australia, which is already fighting industry challenges to its plain packaging and New Zealand, whose government has committed to implementing plain packaging, need to press their governments to back Malaysia's proposal.
This is another important example of a small country standing up to Big Tobacco while America quakes in its boots.
August 16, 2013
Statement of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and American Academy of Pediatrics
WASHINGTON, DC – It is disappointing that the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has retreated from a proposal to the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement that would have made it more difficult for tobacco companies to challenge domestic tobacco control measures under the terms of international trade agreements. The U.S. is negotiating the TPP with 11 other countries, with the next round of negotiations scheduled for August 23-30 in Brunei.
Previously, USTR in May 2012 had announced it would propose new language to the TPP that would have created a “safe harbor” protecting national tobacco control measures from being challenged under the agreement. USTR stated at the time that the proposal would “explicitly recognize the unique status of tobacco products from a health and regulatory perspective.” Our organizations have urged – and continue to urge – USTR to move forward with this proposal and ensure nations can take effective action to reduce tobacco use, which is the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. and around the world.
August 15, 2013
From CPATH:
The U.S. Trade Representative just can't catch a break. Neither can the breathing public.
Public health and medical advocates have urged the USTR to address the scourge of 6 million deaths a year due to tobacco use, by excluding tobacco control protections from challenge under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is a 12-nation trade agreement. Negotiators will meet again next week in Brunei.
We were encouraged by the President's promise to lead an economy for the 21st Century, to reduce preventable deaths among youth, and to
conduct policy transparently.
August 14, 2013
After several academic units at campuses across the University of California system started implementing policies to decline research money from the tobacco industry, then-UC President Bob Dynes objected, claiming an infringement of academic freedom and engaged the Systemwide Academic Senate to oppose these policies.
In 2007, after a battle that lasted several years, including support of a policy of declining tobacco industry money championed by then-Chairman of the Board of Regents Richard Blum, the Regents adopted a compromise policy, RE-89, that prohibited academic units from adopting blanket policies against taking tobacco industry money but recognized that there was a need for careful review of any grant applications to the tobacco companies (or their affiliated organizations) including personal approval by the campus' chancellor before any applications could be submitted. RE-89 also mandated annual reports to the Regents listing all tobacco industry grants and applications.
August 12, 2013
Fair Warning, a news service run by Myron Levin, one of the country's top reporters on the tobacco industry, has a fine piece today, "Protest by Tobacco State Politicians, Business Groups May Snuff Out Obama Administration Trade Move," that describes how the tobacco companies are working through their usual allies and third parties to fight the anemic provision that the Administration floated last year to try and protect the FDA from tobacco companies using the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a way of fighting regulations on tobacco products.
While the Administration never actually tabled a formal proposal, the general principles the US Trade Representative Office presented in a conference call I participated in was so narrowly focused (on "science-based regulations") that it would have provided no protection for state or local tobacco regulations and, in the end, perhaps not even the FDA.
The article also does a nice job of describing the longstanding relationships that the tobacco companies have with a string of US Trade Representatives that it can activate when needed.