The Conflict

Beginning in 1999 the World Health Organization undertook a series of meetings designed to create a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Envisioned as a comprehensive, international, multilateral effort to reduce smoking rates, abate smoking-related illnesses, and regulate the trade, sale, and marketing of tobacco products, the FCTC marked the first truly global public health effort against tobacco consumption.

Economic

•Tobacco companies have long argued that undue restrictions on the sale and trade of tobacco interfere with their ability to sell and market their product to consumers, an economic loss that is borne by their shareholders. The effort to reduce smoking also limits the revenue that national governments collect as taxes on tobacco products. In countries where the tobacco sector is state-owned, as in China, the potential economic loss from...