The dispute was between Thailand and the United States. However, because the Most Favored Nations provision of the GATT requires that any concession granted by one country to any product in any other country must be granted to the like product in all other contracting parties, the U.S. complaint opened Thailand's market to cigarettes from other member nations. Geographic Locations a. Thai legislation also banned cigarette advertising, required health warnings on all cigarette packets and banned cigarette production and investment in tobacco cultivation in neighboring Indo-Chinese countries. Relation of Measure to Environmental Impact a.
China is easily the largest, followed by the United States.
The United States is easily the largest exporter of cigarettes, in spite of the declining domestic sales there. 10.9 14.5 -7.7 8.7 5.0U.S. Consump. Meanwhile, U.S. domestic consumption of cigarettes declined 17 percent since 1981, and the Agriculture Department predicts that domestic consumption will continue to decline throughout the 1990's as a result of health concerns, higher taxes and use restrictions. Yet, despite this declining demand in domestic markets, the U.S. tobacco industry is prospering. It is estimated that while the smoking rate in industrialized countries is declining by 1.5 percent per year, the rate in third world countries is increasing at a rate of 2 percent per year.