> From [log in to unmask] Fri Mar 13 09:06:12 1998
> Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 11:32:43 -0500 (EST)
> Originator: [log in to unmask]
> Sender: [log in to unmask]
> From: Robert Weissman <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Multiple recipients of list CORP-FOCUS <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Truly Retiring the Marlboro Man
>
> Imagine you were Geoffrey Bible, CEO of Philip Morris. You would have two
> overriding goals: First, to limit your liability from lawsuits in the
> United States. Second, to make sure nothing interfered with your plans to
> expand massively abroad.
>
> In the deal the tobacco industry concluded with 40 state attorneys
> general last June, Bible and the other tobacco executives achieved both of
> these aims. The deal gave the industry effective immunity from lawsuits,
> by precluding class action lawsuits, preventing punitive damage awards to
> those who sue the industry and setting an annual cap that would assure the
> industry was required to pay no more than $5 billion a year to victims who
> successfully sued the tobacco companies. And it did absolutely nothing to
> curb Big Tobacco's overseas expansion.
>
> The exclusion of international issues from the deal was not a simple
> oversight. When some of the attorney general negotiators raised it, Big
> Tobacco dismissed it out of hand. In the face of industry obstinacy, the
> attorneys general quickly capitulated.
>
> In fact, the June deal would actually make matters worse internationally.
> The deal specifically denied the Food and Drug Administration authority to
> regulate tobacco exports. It stated that, in the event of bankruptcy, the
> tobacco companies would be able to segment profits from overseas sales
> from their domestic bankruptcy payment obligations. And it denied foreign
> victims of the U.S. tobacco companies their limited right of access to
> U.S. courts. Unfortunately, many of these flaws have been replicated in
> several of the pending tobacco bills under congressional consideration.
>
> What happens to the Tobacco Lords' foreign operations is of tremendous
> importance both to the health of the tobacco companies and, more
> importantly, to the health of millions of people around the world.
>
> Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds sell approximately two-thirds of their
> cigarettes overseas, and make nearly half their profits on foreign sales.
>
> These sales do not just displace other companies sales. U.S. tobacco
> companies' marketing strategies create more smokers. After South Korea
> opened its market to U.S. companies in 1988, for example, smoking rates
> among male Korean teens rose from 18.4 percent to 29.8 percent in a single
> year. The rate among female teens more than quintupled, from 1.6 percent
> to 8.7 percent.
>
> With smoking rates rising in the Third World due to rising incomes,
> corporate tobacco pushing and other causes, the World Health Organization
> predicts tobacco-related deaths worldwide will rise from 3 million to 10
> million by the 2020s, with 70 percent of those fatalities in the
> developing world.
>
> There is, however, reason to be hopeful that Geoffrey Bible and his
> associates will not succeed in their scheme to protect industry profits
> and continue uninhibited addicting millions around the globe. Even as
> prospects for tobacco company special protections are fading on Capitol
> Hill, a group of legislators have crafted an international tobacco control
> package that would begin to address Big Tobacco's international
> misconduct.
>
> In late February, Senators Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, Frank Lautenberg,
> D-New Jersey, Paul Wellstone, D-Minnesota, and Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, joined
> with Representatives Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, and Frank Pallone, D-New
> Jersey, to announce a legislative initiative that would require U.S.
> tobacco companies to adhere to at least as stringent marketing and
> labeling standards overseas as domestically.
>
> Other provisions of the package would: prohibit the U.S. government from
> promoting U.S. tobacco interests in foreign markets; impose tough
> anti-smuggling provisions on tobacco products; and support governmental
> and non-governmental tobacco control efforts, including television
> counteradvertisements urging people not to smoke, in developing countries
> and in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
>
> Some Republican support for at least portions of the package is expected
> to be forthcoming.
>
> Imagine that instead of Geoffrey Bible, you were a parent of a
> 15-year-old in Beijing or Seoul, in Nairobi or Sao Paulo, in Moscow or
> Kiev. In recent years, the U.S. tobacco companies have begun introducing a
> host of slick marketing techniques -- free cigarette giveaways,
> sponsorships of rock concerts and sports events, discotheque dance nights,
> promotional t-shirts, hats and other attire, and many others -- that make
> smoking seem cool, hip, sophisticated and very, very American. Smoking
> rates among teens are rising. Wouldn't you hope that the U.S. government
> would at least ensure that U.S. tobacco companies not expose your child to
> deceptive marketing strategies that are outlawed or about to be banned in
> the United States?
>
>
> Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
> Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
> Multinational Monitor, and co-director of Essential Action, a corporate
> accountability group.
>
> (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
>
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