| inbluevt | Date: Wednesday, 2013/09/11, 10:41 PM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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Behind this skirmish is unhappy big tobacco. As they continue to see profits dwindle in the US, now under even greater threat from e-cigarettes, they continue to attack anything that attempts to rein them in. Maybe they should just rethink their business plan altogether.
There will be link at the end of this page to an excellent program from On Point on e-cigarettes.
Quote “When you lower tariffs on cigarettes, prices become cheaper, greater numbers of kids and poor people become addicted, and overall health gets worse.” -- Ellen R. Shaffer of the Centre for Policy Analysis
WASHINGTON, Sep 7 2013 (IPS) - Between concluding rounds of negotiations towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a major U.S.-proposed free trade agreement, a divisive fight has heated up over the extent to which countries should be allowed to regulate the sale of foreign – potentially far cheaper – tobacco products.
In duelling proposals offered during the latest round of negotiations, in Brunei late last month, the United States and Malaysia put forward starkly different approaches. While Washington is urging that tobacco products be given no special consideration, the Malaysian government has countered that these items should receive a special “carve-out”, exempting them from a broader lifting of trade restrictions.
Now, critics of the U.S. proposal are hoping to emphasise the health implications of these proposals ahead of the next 12-country TPP talks, slated to take place here in Washington starting Sep. 18. The administration of President Barack Obama had initially hoped to have a
final agreement text by October, but that now looks extremely unlikely.
“Under other trade agreements, tobacco companies are currently using their investment provisions to attack public health regulations,” Arthur Stamoulis, director of the Citizens Trade Campaign at Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer watchdog, told IPS.
More
The Rise of E-Cigarettes
In the Philippines, under regulated advertising for tobacco products, cigarette brands have developed more creative products like packets of 10 sticks instead of the standard 20 to make them cheaper for consumers. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS
Message edited by inbluevt - Wednesday, 2013/09/11, 10:45 PM |
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