Tanzania Complaining to WTO About WHO

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 06/09/2010

Tanzania is preparing to appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against World Health Organization proposals that would negatively impact tobacco production, according to a story in the Tanzania Daily News. One proposal would seek to incorporate into the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) a Canadian-type ban on the use of flavors and other ingredients in cigarettes. But Tanzania is concerned, too, about proposals to switch tobacco growers to other crops. Opening the Africa Region meeting of the International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA) in Zanzibar at the weekend, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives, Mohamed Muya, indicated Tanzania's WTO delegation would raise the ingredients issue at a meeting of that organization's committee on technical barriers to trade, scheduled for June 23-24. Tanzania was taking this step, he said, because it was aware of the potential harm that could be caused to demand for the country's tobacco if the Canadian article found its way into the FCTC. Muya added that his ministry was involved in the FCTC working group on alternative crops with a view to ensure that the interests of tobacco growers were taken into consideration and that any alternative crops ultimately would yield similar economic benefits to those of tobacco production. He said the Tanzanian government was supportive of tobacco growers because about 80,000 families in Tanzania were involved in tobacco production, which earned them about US217 million annually. Meanwhile, the acting general manager of the Tobacco Board of Tanzania, Sylivester Kalamata, said tobacco stakeholders were worried by the way advocates of alternative crops were pushing the idea. Enditem