Tobacco.org

• Report of US ban on clove-flavoured cigarettes hits spice's price 

The cloves market appeared to head towards a crash following reports of ban on sales of clove-flavoured cigarettes by the US, which may lead to a sharp fall in its demand at a time when the crop in Indonesia is said to be a bumper one.

Meanwhile, the WTO Appellate Body on a formal petition filed by the Indonesian authorities against the US decision to the WTO in April 2010, decided on April 4 that "the US Law banning the sale of clove-flavoured cigarette to discourage children from smoking was unfair to Indonesia because menthol cigarette can still be sold in the US." . . .

Even though Indonesia has won the case against the US, export of its cigarettes might face a threat from the fact that "many countries have signed the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control under the WHO supervision," an overseas report said. Add to this Brazil is also reported to have banned cigar sales.

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• Big Tobacco backs Australian law opposers ($$) 

- FT.com PMI said the company was openly supporting governments that challenged Australia on plain packaging.

“We have been in contact with many of these countries, including on the trade and legal issues associated with the [plain packaging] policy,” it said. “It is commonplace for affected industries to support countries in WTO disputes and we are open to supporting governments that challenge Australia on plain packaging.”

BAT said the company was happy to provide legal support to member states, but it was “up to them” to accept it.

However, the news drew a sharp response from anti-tobacco campaigners.

“It is very concerning that tobacco companies are using legal action as a delaying tactic against a government that is trying to protect the health of its citizens,” said Robin Hewings, tobacco control manager for Cancer Research UK.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the London-based Action on Smoking and Health, accused the tobacco companies of “getting others to do their dirty work”.

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Former HEW, HHS Secretaries, Surgeons General And CDC Directors Urge Trade Representative To Comply With WTO Appellate Body Decision And Encourage FDA To Ban Menthol Flavoring In Cigarettes 

Former Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and of Health and Human Services, U.S. Surgeons General, and Directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, back to the Johnson Administration, known as The Citizens' Commission to Protect the Truth, today urged the United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Ron Kirk, to comply with the determination of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body and ask the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban menthol cigarettes in order to bring the United States into compliance with its international treaty obligations.

In a letter, signed by the Citizens' Commission Chairman, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Carter who began the nation's first anti-smoking campaign in 1978 and Vice Chairman Louis Sullivan, M.D., president emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine and Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George H.W. Bush, the Citizens' Commission cited the WTO Appellate Body decision upholding a WTO panel decision which found that by banning all cigarette flavorings except menthol, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the Act) discriminates against Indonesian clove cigarettes in violation of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). The Appellate Body, like the panel before it, recommended that the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ask the United States to conform the Act with its obligations under the TBT Agreement and accord menthol and Indonesian clove cigarettes like treatment in recognition of their being like products.

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• Former HEW, HHS Secretaries, Surgeons General And CDC Directors Urge Trade Representative To Comply With WTO Appellate Body Decision And Encourage FDA To Ban Menthol Flavoring In Cigarettes  

Former Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and of Health and Human Services, U.S. Surgeons General, and Directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, back to the Johnson Administration, known as The Citizens' Commission to Protect the Truth, today urged the United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Ron Kirk, to comply with the determination of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body and ask the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban menthol cigarettes in order to bring the United States into compliance with its international treaty obligations.

In a letter, signed by the Citizens' Commission Chairman, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Carter who began the nation's first anti-smoking campaign in 1978 and Vice Chairman Louis Sullivan, M.D., president emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine and Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George H.W. Bush, the Citizens' Commission cited the WTO Appellate Body decision upholding a WTO panel decision which found that by banning all cigarette flavorings except menthol, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the Act) discriminates against Indonesian clove cigarettes in violation of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). The Appellate Body, like the panel before it, recommended that the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ask the United States to conform the Act with its obligations under the TBT Agreement and accord menthol and Indonesian clove cigarettes like treatment in recognition of their being like products.

The Citizens' Commission urged Ambassador Kirk to comply with the Appellate Body's ruling and ask the FDA to ban menthol cigarettes.

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LOSARI/KOESNAIDI: In the David vs. Goliath Story of Kretek, Foundations Are Laid for Future Trade  

Then, last week, the appellate body of the WTO announced that it had upheld the findings of the US-Clove Cigarette Panel (the first stage of the dispute settlement mechanism in the WTO), over which the United States had filed an appeal. It said the FSPTCA was a violation of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). Specifically, it found that the design, architecture, revealing structure, operation and application of the FSPTCA had an adverse impact on competitive opportunities for clove cigarettes, which amounts to discrimination.

But does last week’s recommendation mean that Indonesia has actually won? The answer is not as straightforward as you might think. First, we have to take a closer look at the dispute. . . .

The 2007 result of a long-running gambling case involving Antigua and Barbuda shows that even a tiny country can retaliate against Uncle Sam.

The government has taken bold steps in this case, which indicates that just like any other nation, Indonesia will not stand by idly when its products are being discriminated against. It also sends a clear message to our trading partners that compliance with international agreements is the utmost foundation of future trade relations. Had the government not taken this step, in the future we might have heard of other products originating from Indonesia being unfairly targeted.

We should also give due credit to the WTO as one of the most effective forums for the settlement of trade disputes. We can only hope that this David versus Goliath story also ends well at the dispute settlement body in the coming weeks.

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• VIDEO: Ukraine attacks Australias plain packaging laws 

Two countries have now officially requested consultations on the law at the World Trade Organisation.

One is major tobacco producer Honduras, the other is Ukraine - a country with no tobacco trade at all with Australia.

Anti-smoking activists there say there's something Ukraine does have, and that's powerful tobacco companies and a government willing to do their bidding.

Russia correspondent Norman Hermant travelled to Kiev to explore the challenge to Australia's plain packaging plans.

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PM - Ukraine uses WTO to challenge Australia's tobacco law  

• US must change its tobacco act: RI  

Indonesia will demand that the United States changes its tobacco control act to comply with the recent ruling of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in a dispute, the trade minister has declared.

The Appellate Body of the WTO last week ruled in favor of Indonesia, saying that the US ban on sales of clove cigarettes was discriminatory, as it still allowed sales of other flavored cigarettes, particularly menthol cigarettes, widely produced in the country.

“Both the US and Indonesia are countries that are bound by the rule of law. There’s no reason for the US not to comply with the WTO’s ruling. As a law-based country, it will respect high international ruling issued by the WTO,” Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The ruling could serve as a strong precedent to discourage other countries from banning the sale of clove cigarettes and compliance with the decision was necessary to do that, Gita said.

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WTO Creates Roadblock to Administration's Anti-Smoking Initiative  

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative expressed disappointment, stating that the Obama Administration "will continue to vigorously pursue public health measures in a way that is consistent with United States trade obligations."

The tobacco control act's sponsor, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), stated that the WTO decision "has serious public health implications for … efforts to reduce youth smoking" and that he believed the decision was wrong because the Act did not distinguish based on where a cigarette was made.

The advocacy group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids called on the U.S. government to continue enforcement of its ban on flavored cigarettes but also to take action to remove menthol cigarettes from the market.

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• Tobacco Backers in Indonesia Say: Light Up! 

The book, titled “Killing Indonesia: Global Conspiracy to Destroy Kretek,” argues that anti-smoking campaigns in the country are in the same vein as advocacy against coconut oil, sugar, salt and other indigenous industries that employ lots of Indonesians.

The authors -- three little-known researchers who say they are operating independently and are concerned about preserving local traditions and livelihoods – argue that anti-smoking efforts are part of a grand scheme of economic neocolonialism aimed at reducing domestic competition for foreign importers and creating trade imbalances. . . .

“While the U.S. bans our kretek, Philip Morris, a U.S. multinational company, poached our biggest kretek company and is now the market leader in Indonesia,” the book says. “This is ironic.” It was not immediately possible to reach officials at Philip Morris.

A spokesman for PT HM Sampoerna Tbk, Indonesia's largest cigarette company owned by Philip Morris, could not be reached for comment.

The book, endorsed by artists, writers and even university professors, says that the kretek industry employs 30 million people, directly and indirectly, and contributed 62 trillion rupiah ($6.8 billion) to state coffers in 2010.

Some people in Indonesia even go further, arguing that smoking could have health benefits.

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WTO Again Says US Clove Cigarette Ban Tramples Trade Rules ($$) 

• Tobacco Exports to the US set to Continue 

Businessmen are encouraging the government to create opportunities to continue tobacco exports to the US, after Indonesia won a recent trade dispute at the WTO.

"Six months at the earliest if the government creates the opportunity," Hasan Aoni Aziz, the Indonesian Cigarette Factory Association's spokesman, told Tempo last weekend.

Efforts to continue exports to the US, said Hasan, were an important step to increase the value of national foreign exchange.

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Honduras joins WTO complaint on Australia tobacco packaging 

Indonesia Prevails as WTO Rejects US Ban on Sales of Clove Cigarettes  

• Public Citizen Condemns WTO Attack on U.S. Efforts to Reduce Teen Smoking  

The World Trade Organization's (WTO) final ruling today against U.S. efforts to reduce teen smoking shows that our current trade regime is simply incompatible with basic public health regulation, Public Citizen said. With today's ruling, the WTO Appellate Body has now ordered the U.S. to water down or get rid of a key plank of its landmark Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 (FSPTCA), one of the few policy achievements of the Obama administration's first term. The act banned sale of candy and other sweet-flavored cigarettes used to attract children to smoking.

"The Obama administration and Congress must not bow to yet another ruling from a so-called trade agreement tribunal demanding that the U.S. get rid of yet another important health or environmental policy," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "The Obama administration must stand with the thousands of Americans who have signed a Consumer Rights Pledge calling on the U.S. to not comply with these illegitimate trade pact rulings and to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations that would greatly intensify this problem.

"Countries should not be weakening their public health laws to comply with the anti-health, anti-environmental WTO rules. This case underscores why countries must insist that WTO rules be altered and that no new agreements use the same corporate backdoor deregulation model," said Wallach. "If there is any silver lining to today's ruling, it is that it will confirm the views of growing numbers of consumers, citizens and governments that the WTO must be shrunk or sunk.

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