Bush Signs Tobacco Control Treaty, But Many Expect No Serious Action

by Jim Lobe

(IPS) WASHINGTON -- The good news about the Bush administration signing the tobacco control treaty is clouded by the fact that officials might not be serious about transforming that commitment into law, according to U.S. public health groups.

They are urging the administration to swiftly follow up the May 10th signing by submitting the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification, and to take other measures to demonstrate its independence from the tobacco industry, including increasing aid to low and middle-income countries to support their efforts to reduce smoking.

"Signing the treaty without committing to its ratification would be little more than a public relations gesture," said Judith Wilkenfield of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "By ratifying the treaty, and supporting its effective implementation domestically and internationally, the U.S. can again become a leader in protecting public health around the world."

The United States became the 108th nation to sign the treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), when Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson travelled to United Nations headquarters Monday. A total of 109 countries, including all members of the European Union (EU) have signed it, and 12 have of them also ratified it, transforming the international agreement into national law.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which negotiated the treaty, has set June 29 as a deadline for all countries to sign the document, which will take effect only after 40 countries have ratified it. Under the U.S. Constitution, two-thirds of the Senate must vote in favor of a treaty for it to be ratified.

In a statement released Monday, HHS said it must still complete an inter-agency review of the treaty before submitting it to the Senate, but it did not indicate how long that would take. "The United States has long been a world leader in anti-smoking efforts," Thompson said. "President Bush and I look forward to working with the WHO and other member nations to implement this agreement."

Some four million people each year die -- 400,000 of them in the United States -- from tobacco-related diseases. If current trends continue, the global annual death toll is expected to rise to 10 million people within two decades, with 70 percent of those deaths likely to take place in developing countries.

As smoking rates in recent years have generally fallen in developed countries, developing countries have increasingly become the primary targets of tobacco companies, which have steadily increased the amount of advertising and other market-promoting activities there.

The CFTC, which was adopted by the World Health Assembly one year ago, is designed in major part to counter these efforts.

It requires ratifying nations to implement a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, except in those countries where such activities could be held to violate free-speech guarantees, and to ensure the use of large health warning labels on cigarette packages sold within their borders. It also requires member-states to prohibit tobacco product sales to minors.

The treaty also provides recommendations for laws covering second-hand smoke protections, tobacco taxation, additional regulation of tobacco products and measures to prevent cigarette smuggling.

While praising the purposes of the FCTC, the tobacco industry, often supported by the Bush administration, opposed certain provisions -- particularly restrictions on advertising and marketing. At the annual meeting of tobacco giant Philip Morris/Altria in April, company chairman Louis Camilleri condemned the treaty's ban on these activities.

"Philip Morris/Altria has close ties to a number of key players in the Bush administration, including HHS Secretary Thompson and [Bush's top political aide] Karl Rove," says Kathryn Mulvey, executive director of Infact, a non-partisan group that has campaigned against corporate practices that allegedly threaten the health of consumers, particularly in the developing world.

"Now that the U.S. has signed, will this administration push for the Senate to ratify quickly during this election year?" she asked, adding that her group "will be closely monitoring our government's next steps."

Mulvey added that Washington has used its signature to gain far-reaching concessions in negotiations in treaties, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty, but then failed to ratify them.

"The U.S. government has fought the FCTC every step of the way, even while they've publicly claimed to support it," she said, adding that the administration can establish its good faith only by moving to ratify the treaty before November's presidential election.

Her statement was echoed by Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and by John Seffrin, the director of the American Cancer Society.

"The treaty is a critical first step in defusing the world's ticking tobacco time bomb," said Seffrin. "Signing it is absolutely the right thing to do, but it will only be meaningful if it is backed by concrete action."

In addition to ratification, he said, the administration should provide more financial and technical support to developing countries and reform U.S. and international trade policies to discourage, rather than promote, tobacco consumption.

Wilkenfield said the treaty reflects the recommendations of the scientific and health communities in the United States and complained that Washington had "consistently fought to weaken almost every provision of the treaty during the negotiations and supported positions consistent with those of the tobacco industry."

Among its tactics, she said, was threatening to withhold aid to international tobacco-control efforts if its positions were not adopted.

Just before final agreement on the treaty was reached, the Bush administration attempted to re-open parts of the text in a move that drew angry remarks from other delegations. In the face of united opposition, Washington dropped its request.