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Saturday, February 2, 2008

'Stop pushing alcohol on developing world'
Published: 28 Jan 08



Sweden needs to do more to prevent alcohol and tobacco companies from exploiting countries in the developing world, says Left Party member of parliament Kent Persson.

The major international alcohol and tobacco companies are currently engaged in a tough fight to reach new markets. The tobacco companies are being squeezed in the West by a reduction in the use of tobacco, so they have turned their eyes to developing countries to sell their products. When they look at billions of the world's poorest people what they see is a lot of potential customers.

It is against this background that the European Commission is forcing developing countries to open their markets to alcohol and tobacco. The Commission is using the World Trade Organization (WTO) to force through policies to open borders.

Using the GATS agreement on trade in services, they are trying to prevent WTO members from creating laws protecting public health - including on alcohol and tobacco. The position that WTO members should be forced to liberalize the trade in and marketing of alcohol is having a similar effect.
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