RESEARCH PAPERInternational trade agreements:
a threat to tobacco control policy
E R Shaffer, J E Brenner,
T P Houston
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International covenants establish a
role for governments in
ensuring the conditions for human
health and wellbeing,
which has been recognised as a central
human right.
International trade agreements, conversely, prioritise
the
rights of corporations over health and human rights.
International trade agreements are threatening existing
tobacco control policies and restrict the possibility of
implementing new controls. This situation is unrecognized
by many tobacco control advocates in signatory nations,
especially those in developing countries. Recent
agreements
on eliminating various trade restrictions,
including those
on tobacco, have expanded far beyond
simply international
movement of goods to include internal
tobacco distribution
regulations and intellectual property
rules regulating advertising
and labeling. Our analysis
shows that to the extent trade
agreements protect the
tobacco industry, in itself a deadly
enterprise, they erode
human rights principles and contribute
to ill health. The
tobacco industry has used trade policy
to undermine
effective barriers to tobacco importation. Trade
negotiations provide an unwarranted opportunity for the
tobacco industry to assert its interests without public
scrutiny. Trade agreements provide the industry with
additional tools to obstruct control policies in both
developed
and developing countries and at every level. The
health community
should become involved in reversing
these trends, and help
promote additional measures to
protect public health.(Suppl II):ii19–ii25. doi:
10.1136/tc.2004.007930
