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Bush Administration Efforts to Derail Tobacco Treaty Demonstrate Commitment to Protecting Philip Morris/Altria Profits Over Global Public Health Infact Denounces US Attempts to Change Final Text of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Says Move Motivated by Tobacco Giants Political Ties,Vows Intensified Global Pressure FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACTS: BOSTON -- Attempts by the Bush Administration to weaken the text of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) are sparking sharp criticism from corporate accountability activists across the globe. The FCTC is scheduled to be adopted on May 20th at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. More than 170 countries agreed to a strong final text on March 1st in the face of tremendous pressure from the US. The US is now attempting to reopen the debate by pressing countries to change the text to include reservations, essentially allowing countries to opt out of provisions once they have signed on. Members of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT), which consists of more than 75 organizations from across the globe, are concerned that reopening the FCTC text to debate now could prevent its adoption in May. "The US has increasingly isolated itself from the global community on issues of enormous humanitarian and environmental consequence. Throughout the FCTC talks, our government has consistently taken positions that protect the interests of tobacco giant Philip Morris/Altria at the expense of public health. In the face of tobacco's staggering death toll, we are calling on the Bush Administration to stop its last ditch efforts to derail the FCTC," says Kathryn Mulvey, Executive Director of the US-based corporate accountability organization Infact, a NATT member. The debate over whether to allow reservations was one of the most heated in the final round of treaty negotiations. The US threatened that if reservations were not allowed it would not support the treaty, and would therefore not bring its financial resources and technical expertise into its implementation. In the end, almost every other country involved in the talks took the position against allowing reservations in the FCTC. Most countries argued that opening the door to reservations would dramatically weaken the FCTC's ability to reverse the global tobacco epidemic. Now the Bush Administration is raising this contentious issue anew by sending letters to governments around the world just weeks before the treaty's scheduled adoption. Philip Morris/Altria, one of the biggest contributors to Bush's Republican Party, is clearly concerned about the impact that a strong FCTC will have on its continued international expansion. Despite claims to support the treaty, the tobacco giant has waged a long-term campaign to subvert WHO and international tobacco control advocacy. An editorial on the FCTC in last month's Tobacco International -an industry trade journal-insists that "nothing is final yet," and warns that "manufacturers shall mount a response against the strengthened WHO regulations." The trade journal reported that the US "might press for parts of the text to be renegotiated," and "this could mean the unraveling of the entire treaty." During the final round of FCTC talks, Infact released Cowboy Diplomacy: How the US Undermines International Environmental, Human Rights, Disarmament and Health Agreements which examines US role in the following international agreements: the Kyoto Protocol, Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty, Basel Convention, Biosafety Protocol, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, and Landmine Ban Treaty. According to the report, there is a clear pattern in recent history of the US negotiating down to the lowest common denominator, then failing to support environmental, human rights and other treaties. US attempts to have reservations included in the treaty at this stage follow the same pattern. "Based on previous negotiations on international agreements to protect health, the environment and human rights, it is certain that the US will make every effort to water down the FCTC until the bitter end. Ultimately, there will be almost no chance that the US will ratify this treaty. Countries must stand firm in the face of bullying, and not allow the FCTC to be riddled with reservations," says Akinbode Oluwafemi of Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Nigeria. ### Since 1977, Infact has been exposing life-threatening abuses of transnational corporations and organizing successful grassroots campaigns to hold corporations accountable to consumers and society at large. From the Nestlé Boycott of the 1970s and '80s to the GE Boycott of the 1980s and '90s to today's Boycott of Philip Morris's Kraft Foods, Infact organizes to win!
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