POSSIBLE RESPONSES TO 12 COMMON ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE FCTC

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1 POSSIBLE RESPONSES TO 12 COMMON ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE FCTC 1. Signing and ratifying the FCTC is a long and complicated process it will take government a long time. If there is sufficient political will, signing and ratifying should not take long. Besides, thousands of lives are at stake. Saving lives is worth the time it will take. Norway and Malta signed and ratified within the first four months that the FCTC was open for signature -- if they can do it why can't we? Children now being born will be spared the ravage of tobacco diseased lungs and hearts if we begin to act today - even if ratification takes a few months, or even a little longer. 2. The FCTC will have an unduly disruptive influence on workers in the tobacco industry, including tobacco farmers. The landmark World Bank Report "Curbing the Epidemic" - showed that even the most optimistic forecasts indicate that global tobacco consumption will increase over the next three decades. WHO forecasts that if current trends continue, the number of smokers worldwide will increase from the current 1.1 billion to 1.6 billion in 2025 (due in part to an increase in global population), even as overall prevalence falls in some countries. While future declines in consumption will clearly reduce the number of tobacco farming jobs, those jobs will be lost over decades, not overnight. Hence governments will have ample opportunity to plan a gradual and orderly transition. It is the production decisions of the tobacco multinationals -- where they decide to buy raw tobacco leaf, how much they mechanize, and where they decide to locate their manufacturing plants -- that mostly determine employment in the tobacco sector.

2 Page 2 of 5 Full implementation of the FCTC will only stop the growth in tobacco use in most countries for many years, and then sales will decrease slowly. The cigarette companies, which destroy jobs through automation, and impoverish farmers by keeping prices for raw tobacco leaf low are the real enemies of jobs in the tobacco sector. 3. It is not important that we sign and ratify the FCTC. No one pays attention to international agreements anyway. Not signing and ratifying the FCTC makes a country more vulnerable to the tobacco industry. As other countries with more political commitment to tobacco control begin to take measures to protect their populations, the industry will target our country even more heavily. Our country risks being behind in the region. Already, countries from our region have signed and have initiated actions to ratify. The only rogue nation that scorns the UN and international treaties is the United States. Do we want to be dictated to by them, again, or to follow countries whom we respect like (neighboring or friendly country that has ratified). 4. The FCTC is a violation of our country's sovereignty. Our country signs and ratifies treaties all the time. Besides, our country was involved in drafting the FCTC, and voted to adopt it at the World Health Assembly. 5. Our country already has good tobacco control laws. Why do we need the FCTC? If we opt out of the FCTC, our country will not have a voice in future protocol negotiations on transboundary issues -- like smuggling and advertising -- where our national laws are inadequate to deal with the problem. Signing and ratifying the FCTC may also give us some protection against trade-based challenges to our tobacco control laws.

3 Page 3 of 5 6. The FCTC is not a high priority. Tobacco is the number #1 preventable cause of death in the world how can it not be a high priority? Are your children's future lives not a high priority? Is the prevention of what has been called the 21st century brown plague of disease and death not a priority? No one is arguing that tobacco is our country's only priority -- but it is an important one. Our country has low smoking rates -- why would we not want to take preventative action so that we do not have the same devastating health problem that other countries with high rates of tobacco use have had? The international community has come together to develop a common approach to a health crisis facing all countries -- now is the time to act. 7. Our country cannot afford to do this -- where will money come for cessation, education and economic conversion programs? Countries like Australia, Nepal and Thailand have used some of their tobacco tax money for treatment and education programs. There is no immediate need for funds for economic conversion for tobacco growers -- global demand will not fall for at least the next few decades and then will do so only very slowly. Ask a parent dying painfully of tobacco -caused cancer, who will not see their children grow up if it would have been worth helping them quit smoking when they were young? Cannot our country afford to take the few inexpensive steps called for by the FCTC to help their children to avoid the same fate?

4 Page 4 of 5 8. If your country signs and ratifies the FCTC the tobacco industry will simply move elsewhere, providing jobs to people in other countries. The companies may decide to pull out tomorrow if they find a cheaper place to produce cigarettes. The tobacco companies' criteria for locating their production facilities in a particular country is because they can make maximum profits, not because they want to help the country overcome its unemployment and poverty problems. Good riddance! The companies repatriate all of the profits to their home offices anyway - - our country loses foreign exchange and their presence here has a corruptive influence on health policy. 9. The FCTC will not be an effective treaty since big countries like Germany, Japan and the United States will not sign and ratify. Whether the treaty is effective or not depends to a large extent on our country's willingness to implement and enforce it. We cannot control what big countries like Japan and the United States do -- but the more we demonstrate our commitment to the treaty the more pressure there will be on them to be of assistance on the cross-border aspects of the treaty like smuggling and cross-border advertising. 10. The measures enshrined in the FCTC are not proven and therefore the FCTC won t help in reducing tobacco consumption. On specific issues, see: ARGUMENTS PARTICULAR TO EUROPE 11. We have to wait until we know what the European Union will do. No we don't. Member states are free to ratify without waiting for the European Union.

5 Page 5 of We have to wait until the German challenge to EU advertising directive has been decided. No, we do not have to. If Germany wins, it means the competency to ban advertising lies with individual countries. If the Germans lose, it means the EU can ban advertising. Either way, countries can sign & ratify before the EU does. Framework Convention Alliance, September 2003