From: patrik@cup.portal.com (Patrick M Crumhorn)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: US corporate drug pushers target Asia
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 19:21:27 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

=START=   XMT: 15:30 Mon Aug 17  EXP: 15:00 Thu Aug 20 

U.S. TOBACCO INDUSTRY HOT ON TRAIL OF ASIAN SMOKERS 

PENANG, MALAYSIA, (Aug. 14) IPS - The conveyor belt at the Philip Morris plant
in Richmond, Virginia, produces 8,000 cigarette sticks per minute, but it can't
move fast enough to satisfy rising demand in Asia. 

Ever since a report by the U.S. Surgeon General linked smoking to lung cancer
in 1964, the number of smokers in the United States has been dropping steadily.
In contrast, annual per capita cigarette consumption in Asian developing
countries is rising. 

Philip Morris and other big U.S. tobacco transnationals are therefore targeting
the world's most populous continent -- Asia. 

The U.S. Trade Representative, Carla Hill, is helping cigarette companies by
arm-twisting Asian nations which have tried to protect their own tobacco
industries with import restrictions. She has threatened trade sanctions against
reluctant or uncooperative governments. 

U.S. trade laws allow the government to take action against any nation judged
to be imposing "unfair" or "discriminatory" trade restrictions. 

Vice President Dan Quayle put it rather starkly in 1990: "tobacco exports
should be expanded aggressively because Americans are smoking less." 

Asian health experts say this policy means "a huge epidemic of death will be
unleashed in the Third World." 

Dr. Richard Peto of the cancer studies unit at Britain's Oxford University
agrees: "In the 2020's, there are going to be three million deaths a year in
the rich countries alone from tobacco and seven million deaths a year in the
poor countries." 

Peto also says that of the world's present two billion children, about 800
million are going to become smokers. "If just a quarter of those get killed by
the habit, that will mean 200 million deaths from tobacco." 

Since the 1980's the United States has threatened trade sanctions against
Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand if they failed to open up their markets
to U.S. cigarettes. 

The sanctions threat -- and the parade of U.S. political heavyweights like
ex-White House officials Alexander Haig and Michael Deaver, who acted as
lobbyists for specific U.S. cigarette firms, proved effective. 

Japan, which has the second highest per capita smoking in the world, opened up
its markets to U.S. cigarettes in 1986. Taiwan followed suit in 1987 and South
Korea buckled in 1988. 

Cigarette consumption in all three countries went up shortly thereafter,
according to statistics. In Taiwan cigarette sales rose by four percent and
South Korea posted a two percent annual rise. 

Thailand tried to fight back, only to lift its ban on U.S. cigarettes in August
1991 for fear of U.S. trade retaliation and a General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) ruling. Since then more than 27 million packets of assorted U.S.
cigarette brands worth $72 million have been consumed by Thais. 

"It's a hypocrisy that is perhaps unknown in the history of U.S. foreign
policy," says U.S. lawyer Matthew Myers, who once investigated tobacco
advertising in the United States for the Federal Trade Commission. 

He adds: "I think what is happening with U.S. tobacco exports is one of the
great international tragedies going on today and it will tarnish the entire
image of the United States." 

The U.S. cigarette manufacturers also insist that bans on advertisements of
their products should be lifted. Many Asian countries, including Malaysia, Hong
Kong, Thailand, Singapore have disallowed cigarette advertising in all media. 

But the U.S. firms may have been pushing too hard. In July, Malaysia banned all
"parallel advertisement" for cigarettes. 

U.S. cigarette companies had used this ploy in many Asian countries to
circumvent local laws against straightforward commercials by advertising
products like "Lucky Strike" motorcycle gear, "Salem" holidays and "Marlboro"
shirts. 

Concerned governments have also banned the sale of cigarettes to minors. 

In March, the Thai cabinet submitted a bill to parliament making it illegal to
sell cigarettes to children under 15. Last month Taiwan banned sales to
children under 18. Singapore and Hong Kong authorities may also follow suit. 



=END= 
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