Rebuttal to the tobacco industry: Put health above profits — Molly Cheah

AUG 19 — Every day about 30 people die a painful death in Malaysia from tobacco-related diseases. And even more will die each day if the tobacco industry is given special privileges to run its business. The Malaysian government currently has put in place tobacco control measures which must be further strengthened. An effective way to do that is to exclude tobacco from new free trade agreements such as the TPP currently being negotiated by the government. Many medical and public health groups have come out in support of this step.

The tobacco industry is the only one opposing this move because it wants to continue selling even more cancer sticks.  The tobacco industry had never accepted the fact that 177 countries have ratified the global tobacco convention — the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) — which empowers governments to exercise their sovereignty and do what it takes to protect public health. It is laughable for the tobacco industry to quote the convention. It is really an oxymoron for the tobacco industry to teach us or the government how to interpret the convention.

More seriously, the tobacco industry wants to use the TPP to have the right to sue our government if its profits are affected. This is outrageous and very damaging to Malaysia’s public health.

Similar to the call by the Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC) in Malaysia, medical groups and health professionals in the US are also making similar requests for a carve-out of tobacco to their government. That is what is bothering American tobacco companies and their related businesses who sell tobacco in Malaysia.

Things are a little different in the US which is also negotiating the TPP. The tobacco industry has forgotten to inform the Malaysian public that the tobacco companies in the US have paid billions of dollars in a master settlement when state attorneys-general sued the industry in the 1990s to recoup medical cost for treating tobacco-related diseases. In 2006, major US tobacco companies were found guilty of a five-decade-long conspiracy to deceive and defraud the public about the health risks of smoking under their Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute. This statute is often applied to mafia organisations.

The tobacco industry has not mentioned that US federal agencies, including the office of the United States Trade Representatives (USTR), are prohibited by US federal law in the form of the Executive Order 13193 and the Doggett Amendment to the Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations Bill from using trade policy to promote the export or sale of tobacco products or to undermine non-discriminatory restrictions by foreign governments on tobacco marketing.

Instead, the tobacco industry is selectively picking individual words found in the provisions of the tobacco convention and interprets them out of context to justify its actions in undermining the government’s tobacco control measures and to sway anti-smoking public opinion.

Sure, the WTO/GATT has a provision to enable governments to protect public health. But that has not fully protected governments when they take tough tobacco control action such as the challenge Australia is now facing for its plain packaging of cigarettes. They are being challenged under the WTO.

We reiterate our call to put health before profits. The MCTC is fully behind the Malaysian government’s decision to protect public health and ensure our tobacco control polices and measures are secure and not undermined or challenged by tobacco companies under the guise of free trade.

* Dr Molly Cheah is president of the Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC).

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.