Trade accords can be bad for
health By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Southeast Asia's march to create a
regional free trade area by 2018 is causing heartburn
among public health experts, given that this push to end
trade tariff barriers could open the doors to an
avalanche of cigarettes flooding local stores.
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO)
appealed to Southeast Asian governments to "weigh the
public health risks of liberalization of the tobacco
trade under the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian
Nations] Free Trade Agreement [AFTA]."
The
appeal came ahead of a two-day meeting, from August
23-24, to be held in the Malaysian city of Penang, where
officials are expected to address issues that link AFTA,
the tobacco trade and public health.
"The
liberalization of trade would result in an increase in
tobacco use in the region," Burk Fishburn of the WHO's
Western Pacific regional office said in an interview.
Hatai Chitanondh, president of the Thailand
Health Promotion Institute, told Inter Press Service,
"Tobacco companies stand to gain from the drop in
tariffs, because the price of cigarettes will drop,
boosting sales."
The WHO is echoing calls by
anti-tobacco activists like Hatai for ASEAN governments
to exclude tobacco products from the free trade agenda.
"Tobacco products should not be included on the list of
goods to benefit from the AFTA," says Hatai. "This is
the only way to lessen the health consequences of
smoking in the region."
The WHO wants
governments to view tobacco products as they do guns,
which cannot be traded liberally. "There are a number of
products that are excluded from free trade deals, such
as guns, and we think tobacco should come under this
category," adds Fishburn. This appeal to thwart the
spread of tobacco products in Southeast Asia comes over
a month after 168 countries completed the signing of the
world's first public health international treaty, the
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Of those
168, only three nations - Brunei, Myanmar and Singapore
- of ASEAN's 10 members - which also include Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and
Vietnam - have ratified the anti-tobacco treaty.
Negotiations for the FCTC took place over four
years by the 192 member states of the WHO and it was
approved as a legally binding document in May 2003. It
offers countries a range of measures to be included in
local tobacco control laws. Among them are a ban on
tobacco advertising, compelling tobacco companies to
display a health warning covering one-third of a
cigarette packet's cover and protecting citizens from
second hand smoke in public places, such as restaurants.
In addition, the FCTC endorses the need to crack
down on cigarette smuggling, "including the placing of
final destination markings" on packets and a tobacco tax
increase.
Currently, there are an estimated 1.1
billion smokers in the world, and Southeast Asia has
been singled out by the WHO as having the "second
highest annual per capita growth rate in tobacco
consumption". That stems from more people smoking in the
Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
According to
the WHO, if governments fail to contain this habit, the
prevailing number of deaths per year globally due to
tobacco-related diseases, which is now 5 million, will
mushroom to 10 million annually by 2030.
Seventy
percent of those deaths, the United Nations health
agency warns, will take place in the developing world.
"Trade liberalization will most likely increase death,
disease and the economic cost due to tobacco use," Dr
Shigeru Omi, regional director of the WHO's Western
Pacific division, said in a press release.
The
reality of tobacco use is that "the economic costs to
society are staggering", he added, quoting a World Bank
study that reveals the net economic cost of tobacco use
exceeds estimates of "the economic benefits to producers
and consumers by at least US$20 billion each year".
Such a dismal message, however, has still to be
absorbed by Southeast Asian governments with the
exception of Singapore and Thailand, says Hatai.
"Most governments are quite weak on health
issues when it is up against free trade," he adds. "And
the voice of the affected is usually weak in this
region." He accuses tobacco companies of pushing
governments to keep their products within the goods to
benefit from the trade agreement.
The current
trade volume between ASEAN's 10 members is close to $100
billion, up from the $73 billion in the value of trade
in 1998.
ASEAN leaders launched plans to
establish AFTA in 1992, with the aim of boosting the
region's competitive edge as a production center for the
world market. Trade liberalization within the region,
including an end to tariff and non-tariff barriers, was
vital to that effort.
