Feature Article

U.S. Will Be Non-Voting Member if Senate Does Not Approve Treaty by November

Thirteen months after the United States, along with 167 other nations, signed an international tobacco treaty as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the treaty has not been sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification.  In May 2004, when then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson signed the treaty in Geneva on behalf of the United States, President Bush said that he wanted the Senate to ratify it.  Since then, the treaty was sent to the State Department for review and never reappeared.  According to the latest statement from the State Department, the treaty is still under review and it is unclear when the process will be completed.

Among other provisions, the treaty requires countries that have ratified the agreement to (a) prohibit all tobacco advertising and promotion (or as much as the country's constitution will allow), (b) implement larger health warnings on tobacco packaging, (c) adopt effective clean indoor air legislation, and (d) ban the use of misleading terms such as "mild" and "light."  More information about the treaty is available from the World Health Organization and the Framework Convention Alliance for Tobacco Control.

Many believe that the Bush administration has not sent the treaty to the Senate because of the political influence of the tobacco industry.  Not surprisingly, the two largest tobacco companies in the U.S. have come out in opposition to several of the provisions in the treaty.  Spokespeople from R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Altria Group (parent company of Philip Morris USA), have voiced concern over the possible restrictions on cigarette advertising as well as the expansion of government control over the industry.

When all signatories convene again to discuss implementing the directives of the treaty, only those nations that have ratified the treaty, of which there are 70 at this point, will have a vote during the meetings.  If the U.S. Senate does not approve the treaty by the two-thirds margin necessary for ratification, it is unclear whether the U.S. will even have a voice in further meetings.

The lack of an active presence regarding the international tobacco treaty is troubling to tobacco control advocates, considering that the United States once lead the way in tobacco control.  Since then, a host of countries have surpassed the U.S. and put more expansive policies into place with respect to tobacco advertising, health warnings on packaging, smoking in the workplace and public places, and disclosure of tobacco additives, and other measures. Italy, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Malta, Uganda, and Bhutan already have established nationwide laws prohibiting smoking in all public places.  Several countries have begun to implement an EU directive regarding tobacco, banning all tobacco advertising in the press, on the Internet, and at sporting events.  Furthermore, the German Consumer Protection and Agriculture Ministry has published a document over 1,000 pages long which lists all additives to tobacco products sold in Germany.