During the first meeting of the working group, there was recognition by some countries that the relationship between the framework convention and relevant WTO treaties as well as other multilateral agreements needed further

consideration.  This is a critical area for analysis given that WTO rulings generally put profits over the environment and health forcing governments to weaken laws or policies that were designed to promote health, save the environment, or support small scale economies. See box for description of WTO and its Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).

The WTO and the agreements it presides over are meant to remove trade barriers to promote greater competition, lower prices, and greater advertising and promotion to lead to greater consumption in many goods and services.

According to the World Bank Report, Curbing the Epidemic, Governments and the Economics of Tobacco Control, "cigarettes are no exception" such that free trade or trade liberalization has contributed to an increase in the consumption of tobacco in low and middle income countries. The World Bank Report cites a study that showed that the consumption of cigarettes per person was 10 percent higher in 1991 in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan than it would have been if those countries’ markets had not been forced open in the 1980s due to US threatened trade sanctions.

To date there have been no rulings under the WTO on tobacco. However under GATT (which is now under the authority of the WTO), Thailand won a partial victory by having its tobacco advertising ban upheld so long as it applied to both domestic and international tobacco companies.  The GATT ruling has been cited as a "precedent for countries to intervene to reduce tobacco demand on public health grounds while maintaining the principles of free trade".  However discussion of the ruling leaves out the fact that Thailand’s ad ban was in response to the forced opening of its market through US threatened trade sanctions. And indeed it is unclear if, through the ruling, public health did in fact prevail as tobacco consumption is higher in Thailand than it would have been if its market had remained closed in the first place.

Click here to find out how the WTO might impact the FCTC

For more information contact the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project,
30 Van Ness Avenue, #2300, San Francisco, California, 94102, USA.
Telephone: 415-581-2448 Fax: 415-581-2492
Email: Mele Lau
Email: Susana Hennessey Lavery