US Senators Warn Europe on Tobacco Rules

Source from:  The Commentator 06/08/2013

Kentucky's Republican Senator Mitch McConnell has written a sharply worded letter aimed at the European Union restrictions on tobacco marketing, following concerns that international trade rules would be breached.

The European Union's increasingly dictatorial regulations around tobacco marketing has cause McConnell, the Senate minority leader, to write the letter which has been co-signed by Senators Rand Paul, Richard Burr and Kay Hagan. It reads:

"We have serious concerns about the [tobacco proposal] and its impact on trans-Atlantic trade relations... As the Senate considers the potential U.S.-EU free trade agreement, the [proposal] calls into question the EU's ability to deliver on regulatory commitments to the U.S. that it will have to make under a comprehensive U.S.-EU agreement."

A spokesman for Tonio Borg, the European health commissioner who drew up the plans, denied trade relations would be hurt. Replying to the senators, the EU ambassador in Washington, João Vale de Almeida, said the proposed measures were consistent with the EU's international commitments. "We expect this also to be the case with our future engagement" over a new U.S.-EU trade pact.

Critics have pointed to the Senators' links to the tobacco industry, with Senator Burr receiving around $524,000 to date in donations from tobacco firms.

But even Europeans think the new tobacco directive is heavy-handed. The European Commission says it is updating old rules to account for a changing market, but proposed rules suggest that at least three quarters of cigarette packets would now have to display health warnings, and menthol, flavoured and slim cigarettes would be banned altogether.

The proposal has drawn opposition from several Central European countries—Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia—who say it would hurt tobacco growers and processors in their countries.

Health ministers from the EU are expected to discuss the proposal on June 21. Then it will be debated by the European Council and European Parliament. Enditem