The New York Times recently exposed how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the lobbying arm of Big Business in America,was advancing the cause of the tobacco industry around the world.\u00a0 The U.S. Chamber has been lobbying to block the efforts of nations to enact pro-health measures that seek to reduce the carnage caused by smoking.<\/p>\n
The Times documented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce\u2019s tactics in fighting against health measures to reduce tobacco use, measures such as smoke-free indoor public places, graphic warning labels on tobacco products, restrictions on tobacco marketing and increased tobacco taxes.\u00a0 According to the Times, the U.S. Chamber has been deeply involved in efforts ranging from Latin America, to Europe, and to Asia.<\/p>\n
In some cases, the U.S. Chamber directly opposed health policies.\u00a0 In letters to those countries\u2019 public officials, the U.S. Chamber has voiced strong \u201cconcerns\u201d about such laws; even threatening that opposing the tobacco industry\u2019s wishes could result in significant economic harm.<\/p>\n
The Times uncovered evidence of the U.S. Chamber pitting countries against each other in trade disputes.\u00a0 For example, the Times reported that the nation of Ukraine became embroiled in a lengthy international trade dispute with Australia at the request of the U.S. Chamber\u2019s local affiliate.<\/p>\n
In addition, the U.S. Chamber has been systematically engaged in opposing measures in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that would protect countries\u2019 sovereign rights to implement public health policies.<\/p>\n
The Times quoted one World Health Organization official, \u201c[The U.S. Chamber] represents the interest of the tobacco industry\u2026They are putting their feet everywhere where there are stronger regulations coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the chamber has local branches in the United States, it also has more than 100 affiliates worldwide. \u00a0According to the Times, for foreign companies, membership comes with \u201caccess to the U.S. Embassy\u201d according to the Cambodian branch, and entree to \u201cthe U.S. government,\u201d according to the Azerbaijan branch. Members in Hanoi get an invitation to an annual trip to \u201clobby Congress and the administration\u201d in Washington.In Estonia, the U.S. ambassador serves as honorary president of the chamber\u2019s local affiliate.<\/p>\n
Of course, to those who closely watch New York\u2019s politics, the growing clout of the tobacco lobby and its allies comes as no surprise.\u00a0 From 2000 through 2008, New York policymakers took major steps\u2014banning smoking in all public and workplaces, raising tobacco taxes, mandating that all cigarettes had to meet fire safety standards\u2014that made New York the nation\u2019s leader in protecting the public\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
Since that time however, the tobacco lobby rebuilt its strength.\u00a0 During the years 2011 through 2014, the tobacco industry\u2019s political operation has strengthened.\u00a0 In 2013, tobacco giant Altria (formerly known as Philip Morris) topped the charts in lobbying spending in New York State.<\/p>\n
The growing political clout of the tobacco lobby has paid off.\u00a0 Funding for the state\u2019s tobacco control program has been slashed by half and now ranks 21st<\/sup> in the nation in terms of adequacy, despite New York raising billions in tobacco revenues and a huge increase in overall spending in the state budget.\u00a0 In addition, the current Cuomo Administration has advanced no new significant tobacco control measures.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s remember that the tobacco industry is unique \u2013 it makes a product that used as directed, addicts and kills.\u00a0 And it has for decades lied to the American people and many around the world about the dangers of their products.\u00a0 When government officials get bamboozled by the industry\u2019s deceptions, or capitulate to Big Tobacco\u2019s \u2013 and their allies\u2019 \u2013 political clout, people die.<\/p>\n The Obama Administration should make it clear that the tobacco industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce do not speak for it and the Administration should rescind whatever informal deals it has with the Chamber.<\/p>\n In New York, Governor Cuomo should stand up to the industry and expand the fight against the number one cancer killer in New York by boosting state support for its anti-smoking programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The New York Times recently exposed how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the lobbying arm of Big Business in America,was advancing the cause of the tobacco industry around the world.\u00a0 The U.S. Chamber has been lobbying to block the efforts of nations to enact pro-health measures that seek to reduce the carnage caused by smoking. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1512,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/1512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}