{"id":56924,"date":"2015-07-25T15:17:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-25T07:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=56924"},"modified":"2015-07-25T15:17:08","modified_gmt":"2015-07-25T07:17:08","slug":"group-lashes-out-on-us-business-groups-meddling-with-ph-legislation-on-tobacco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/07\/25\/group-lashes-out-on-us-business-groups-meddling-with-ph-legislation-on-tobacco\/","title":{"rendered":"Group lashes out on US business group\u2019s meddling with PH legislation on tobacco"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tobacco<\/a>
Tobacco farmers (Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — A newly released international report reveals how the US Chamber of Commerce and its global American Chamber affiliates have acted in behalf of the tobacco industry in influencing tobacco control policies that resulted to weak or compromised legislative results and undermined governments\u2019 independence.<\/p>\n

The 17-page report titled U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Blowing Smoke for Big Tobacco and released this month, has described the various ways the organization flexes its muscles on countries that include opposing health policies, pitting nations against each other in international trade disputes and influencing international trade agreements to benefit the tobacco industry.<\/p>\n

The report also contained case studies of five countries namely the Philippines, Uruguay, Burkina Faso, Moldova, and the European Union and told how the organization and its local affiliates had lobbied to oppose health measures specifically tobacco taxes, graphic health warnings, and standardized packaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis confirms what we in the health community have been seeing for years \u2013 how big tobacco uses multi-pronged approaches to lobby its interests to the point of undermining government\u2019s independence to chart their own affairs,\u201d said Emer Rojas, president of the New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP).<\/p>\n

The report cited as an example how the US Chamber and the AmCham in the Philippines aggressively fought to fight the enactment of the amended sin tax in 2012 backing up misleading industry arguments such as tobacco smuggling and illicit trade, and insinuating that government would fail to reach its revenue targets.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of those threats had happened. Today revenues from the sin tax fund universal health care for poor Filipinos and increased the health budget at a level we\u2019ve never seen before,\u201d Rojas said.<\/p>\n

The NVAP chief said the tobacco industry\u2019s influence in Philippine politics was so strong that while government had passed three national tobacco control laws they were not without some form of compromise to please the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublic Act 9211 or the tobacco regulation law allowed the industry to sit in the interagency committee that monitors compliance of the law. We lobbied Congress for unitary tax for cigarettes but this won\u2019t happen until 2017. We proposed bigger graphic health warnings and shorter compliance period but legislators settled for 50% coverage and gave the industry almost two years to comply. We would have better versions of these laws but unfortunately some compromise had to be reached,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rojas noted that big tobacco was also able to exert influence on health policies as it donated millions of pesos to disaster relief and fund educational scholarships in the guise of corporate social responsibility.<\/p>\n

The report, published by various organizations that include Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, and Framework Convention Alliance, also revealed how the US Chamber of Commerce, a Washington DC-based private trade organization has lobbied for big multinational companies around the world and created a misconception that it represents the entire American business community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the self-described \u2018world\u2019s largest business organization,\u2019 the U.S. Chamber\u2019s positions on public policies around the world, including public health policies, are often perceived as carrying the weight of the U.S. business community. As a result, for many governments \u2013 particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) \u2013 disregarding U.S. Chamber policy positions on tobacco can carry an implied threat for the country\u2019s prospects to attract investment and economic growth.<\/p>\n

The report noted that some chamber officials and those at its AmCham affiliates come from the tobacco industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — A newly released international report reveals how the US Chamber of Commerce and its global American Chamber affiliates …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,19,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-business","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}