Watchdogs Reveal Chamber of Commerce 'Blowing Smoke' for Big Tobacco
A new report sheds light on the shadowy and coordinated efforts of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the tobacco industry to use intimidation, pressure, and lies to tear down life-save public health protections around the world.
Released Thursday by Tobacco Free Kids, Public Citizen, Corporate Accountability International, and other watchdog groups, (pdf) details the sinister joint efforts of these players in Uruguay, Burkina Faso, Moldova, the European Union, and the Philippines.
“[T]he U.S. Chamber and its AmCham affiliates have joined the tobacco industry in fighting effective tobacco control policies in multiple countries—often without fully disclosing that they are working with the tobacco industry—implying that the full force of the U.S. business community is behind these efforts and that economic harm could result if countries move forward,” states the report.
For example, Burkina Faso passed a law in 2011 requiring graphic warning labels to cover at least 60 percent of packaging for tobacco products. Yet, this mandate has been delayed for years by the tobacco industry and Chamber of Commerce.
“In January 2014, Prime Minister Luc Adolphe Tiao received a letter from the U.S. Chamber warning that the Minister of Health’s graphic warning label proposal violated international intellectual property rights and trade agreements, implying that the tobacco industry might use international trade agreements to entangle the Burkina Faso proposal in costly trade litigation, which as a low-income country it cannot afford,” the report states.
There is just one problem: the Chamber was blowing smoke.
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