Can Malaysia Rally Support From Other Countries to Curb TPPA Tobacco Lobby?

Source from:  The Establishment Post  03/03/2014

Malaysia needs support to get tobacco tariff cuts and removal of tobacco controls carved out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Since Malaysia put forward this proposal in the last August, the response worldwide has been impressive. But there is hardly a whimper from the other TPPA negotiating countries.

The attorneys-general of 42 states of the United States, a prominent academic in New Zealand and health groups worldwide have rallied behind Malaysia and this has given Malaysia all the more reason to dig its heels in to try to curb the TPPA tobacco lobby.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been vocal over his stand on tobacco tariff cuts. He says: "But these are weak half-measures at best that will not protect American law — and the laws of other countries — from being usurped by the tobacco industry, which is increasingly using trade and investment agreements to challenge domestic tobacco control measures."

All Malaysia needs is to find allies from among the other 10 TPPA negotiating countries, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. And International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed has his work cut out for him.

What the United States is proposing, in a nutshell, is:
•to cut tariffs – this will lead to cheaper cigarettes. Malaysia imposes a high tax on tobacco items with a tax rate of 52 per cent;
•to give tobacco multinationals full authority over marketing and advertising – this includes the removal of health warning in cigarette packs and the return of cigarette advertising in the media;
•to allow tobacco companies to use the investor-state arbitration system to sue governments that seek to control tobacco marketing.

Tobacco companies have been suing countries like Australia and Uruguay for their "plain packaging" laws. Philip Morris is now attempting to sue Australia in front of an international panel of arbitrators over "plain packaging" regulations on cigarettes.

Incidentally, all the TPPA negotiating countries are signatories of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control except the United States of America (USA).

For Malaysia, it makes perfect sense to keep the tariffs. The healthcare cost of tobacco consumption exceeds the tobacco tax revenue by US$231 million (RM734 million), according to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)  Tobacco Tax Report Card 2012 by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance. That is a huge savings in terms of cost and quality of life.

And it is not a surprise that Malaysian doctors have also come out in support of Malaysia's move on having this carved out in the TPPA, away from the TPPA tobacco lobby groups.

Malaysian Medical Association president Dato' Dr N.K.S. Tharmaseelan says: "We spend a large percentage of the Health Budget on treating those affected by smoking including secondary smokers . We lose productivity and many hundreds of thousands die as a result.

"The Ministry of Health has correctly placed health before wealth unlike the USA who want to do trade and drive the economy despite knowing the ill-effects of tobacco," he says in a statement sent to The Establishment Post.

In New Zealand, Auckland University Professor Jane Kelsey, who has written extensively on how free trade and investment treaties impede smoke-free policies, is putting pressure on her government to curb the TPPA tobacco liberalisation.

New Zealand is committed to a smoke-free policy that will make New Zealand the first country to wipe out smoking in all public places within the next 15 years. The import of tobacco will be severely limited.

All eyes are on New Zealand now. Is it going to be the first negotiating country to rally its support for Malaysia's call for a carve out in TPPA? Will the others follow? Enditem