Health Authorities Push Through Taxation Guidelines Behind Closed Doors at Moscow WHO Summit

Source from:  CNW 10/15/2014

On Thursday at the WHO FCTC's Conference of the Parties (COP6) in Moscow, guidelines on price and tax measures (Article 6) were hurriedly adopted behind closed doors, further demonstrating the FCTC's habit of infringing on issues of national sovereignty.

"Public health authorities are not fiscal experts", said Michiel Reerink, Global Regulatory Strategy Vice President at JTI (Japan Tobacco International). "Yet, one-size-fits-all decisions were rushed in the absence of a vast majority of governments' taxation experts, who should have the last say on their individual fiscal policies".

The COP has once again shown a complete lack of respect for several Parties by blatantly ignoring their wish to express their reservations on the guidelines, particularly regarding the minimum benchmark tax of 70% and the allocation of tax revenues to finance tobacco control programs[1]. Two years ago, at COP5 in Seoul, Korea, Parties adamantly opposed the same recommendations. Despite this, the draft guidelines remained largely unchanged and were nevertheless adopted at record speed.

"While the guidelines are not binding for governments, Ministries of Finance will be under pressure to adopt them in their national law.  Yesterday's decision not only represents an alarming attempt to erode countries' sovereignty on taxation policies, but also violates COP6's own requirement to make 'every effort' to reach agreement by consensus", added Mr. Reerink.　Enditem