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Obama must see TPPA won't protect tobacco
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Open letter to President Barack Obama of the United States of America, in conjunction with his visit to Malaysia from April 26 to 28, 2014.

 

Dear President Obama,

 

The Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC) would like to take this opportunity to bid you a warm welcome to Malaysia.

We are given to understand that your visit will discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

 

The current and future tobacco control measures of Malaysia and other TPPA countries are threatened by multiple chapters of the TPPA.

 

An example of this can be seen by the current Philip Morris cases against Uruguay and Australia seeking billions in US dollars in compensation for their tobacco control measures using equivalent provisions to those which had been agreed in the leaked TPPA Investment chapter.

 

Due to this, Malaysia proposed completely carving out tobacco control measures from the TPPA during the 19th Round of the TPPA negotiations in Brunei in August 2013.

 

For this initiative, Malaysia had received accolades of praise from a New York Times editorial and the public health community.

 

More recently the National Association of Attorneys-General (NAAG) had even written a letter to USTR Ambassador Michael Froman to request him to support Malaysia's proposal on tobacco as Malaysia's proposal in particular explicitly provide that the TPPA does not apply to trade or investment in tobacco or tobacco products.

 

The 45 out of America’s 50 state attorneys-general supporting Malaysia’s tobacco carved-out proposal in the TPPA were those who had been instrumental in securing the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) against the tobacco industry, one of the biggest legal victories in the history of tobacco control for the world.

 

At the same time, since the US is also a party to the TPPA, the public health achievements in the MSA should not be subject to backdoor attacks on the very legislation used to make those gains where the states enacted new statutes and regulations to enforce certain of the Agreement’s terms.

 

Today, 80 percent of the world's smokers reside in the developing world, where the tobacco industry is focusing their business, using any excuse including free trade agreements to challenge legitimate government efforts to reduce tobacco use.

 

Tobacco is the only product which has a treaty to control its use, namely the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. All TPPA countries except the United States have ratified the treaty.

Mr President Obama, MCTC urges you to make your visit to Malaysia more significant than the last time a US President, Lyndon Johnson, visited Malaysia in 1966 by stating your irrevocable support for Malaysia's total tobacco carve out proposal in the TPPA.

 

You will leave behind a legacy in tobacco control for the world; with much more impact for the rest of the world than the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement signed in 1998 had achieved a significant impact on tobacco control in the United States only.

The TPPA will then be a historical treaty and truly a '21st Century' Free Trade Agreement.

 


DR MOLLY CHEAH is president of the Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC).