Post by cjm on Sept 30, 2014 7:23:46 GMT
I am prepared to wager that those who oppose tobacco growing in Africa are the same holy souls advocating abortion on demand, marijuana legalisation and who crow about the success of black tobacco growers in Zim. I can descern no logical trend except a reckless disregard for traditional views - professional sh!t stirrers, perhaps?
www.farmingportal.co.za/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=4179:health-bureaucrats-unfairly-targeting-tobacco-farmers-africa
Health bureaucrats unfairly targeting tobacco farmers Africa
THE livelihood of more than 30-million tobacco farmers and workers in more than 120 countries is being held ransom by a handful of bureaucrats in Geneva, most of whom have never visited a tobacco farm.
More than 20 of these countries are in Africa, and for seven of them (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) tobacco is a major component of their agricultural sector. In some African countries, the sector contributes up to 30% of gross domestic product, 25% of government revenues and up to 45% of foreign exchange earnings.
In Malawi, for example, seven out of 10 Malawians are directly and indirectly affected by tobacco farming, with 65%-95% of rural household income linked to the crop. Destroy that and you condemn a nation and its people to perpetual poverty.
Yet African farmers are being dictated to by health officials far removed from the agricultural sector. In fact, these same officials have publicly stated they will not engage with farmers and have successfully excluded them and their representative bodies from a United Nations (UN) forum that will determine their future at a conference in Moscow next month. Moreover, these same officials have even excluded the media and public from the last World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of the Parties (COP). One wonders what this UN body has to hide?
This is the new imperialism. Gone are the days of simply imposing one’s might on a colonised nation; today, it is done through corrupting the machinery of a legitimate organisation — the UN, in this case — and driving an agenda as paternalistic and damaging as any colonial regime.
Who are these bureaucrats? They form a clique within the WHO — a laudable body that has achieved enormous successes in global healthcare — that is obsessed with the cigarette industry. And instead of waging a legitimate and transparent campaign to persuade consumers not to smoke, they have switched their attention to a much easier, a more vulnerable target: the tobacco leaf grower. The farmer is always the person, historically, that has been denied a voice.
Tobacco is a legal product whose primary value chain is worth more than $10bn to Southern Africa alone. Its use as a consumer item is already highly regulated in most countries and is subject to high so-called "sin taxes" that account for a substantial contribution to national budgets.
So why pick on the farmer? The framework for global tobacco control was set by the FCTC and came into force in 2005. The treaty’s governing body, the COP — which now numbers more than 175 — committed to a range of measures around demand reduction, supply reduction and international co-operation. COP has met five times and its sixth session will be held in the Russian capital Moscow from October 13-18.
It has failed on all three measures, but its most egregious failures are in supply reduction and international co-operation. The former is simply a matter of economics: while there is a demand for tobacco — a legal product — farmers should not be denied their right to grow it. Yet recommendations to be put to the COP next month include a prohibition on support for tobacco farmers. Moreover, these recommendations will be made by health officials without the presence of agriculture ministries to provide balance.
The argument that growing tobacco in Africa detracts from food production is part of the Geneva bureaucrats’ smoke and mirrors campaign. In almost every tobacco-producing country in Africa, tobacco forms part of a diverse cropping system and is an important and reliable income source that enhances food security rather than reducing it. Numerous studies have shown that there is no direct causal link between tobacco cultivation and poverty.
Yet, the FCTC continues to target the legitimate tobacco leaf farmer.
The issue of international co-operation is a more complex and contentious one. The FCTC wants to force through a provision that gives health issues priority over trade agreements. In other words, Geneva health bureaucrats will determine trade policies on tobacco. More than 90% of all of Africa’s tobacco is exported: it is one of the top 10 products, by value, traded within the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. Yet, the decision by a bunch of Geneva health bureaucrats, if allowed to pass uncontested, could destroy the livelihood of millions of farmers and their dependants — and their nations — throughout Africa.
Apart from this, singling out the tobacco crop would be a tacit endorsement of "disguised protectionism" and possibly set a precedent whereby governments could forfeit their obligations under pre-existing treaties. We already have an efficient UN organisation established in 1995 that deals with trade, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and its Dispute Settlement Understanding. To date, the mechanism has dealt with more than 500 cases of which there was only one case involving tobacco control regulations. The WTO ruled in favour of the tobacco-producing country. Which is probably why the FCTC now wants to usurp it.
The WTO provides a level playing field for all countries and all products, embodies committee structure where concerns can be raised, and operates a dispute settlement system that ensures a high level of compliance.
International trade law has been developed through consensus and through interpretation of WTO dispute settlement systems. The goal was to create a level playing field and avoid "unjustifiable discrimination" or "disguised restrictions on international trade". It has largely been successful.
As it stands, there is no conflict between international trade rules and health laws. Nor are trade agreements an obstacle for regulators to push through measures to protect public health. So why try to override it?
The essence of public international law is that it does not favour one international agreement over another and that it embodies the spirit of the harmony of international treaties regulated by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
The FCTC goes against the spirit and the letter of the convention.
The African continent is rising and farmers will be the backbone of that effort. Agriculture accounts for 65% of Africa’s employment and 75% of its domestic trade. According to the UN International Development report, Agribusiness for Africa’s Prosperity, agriculture will drive Africa’s economic growth for years to come.
So while it is recognised that trade is a key driver of growth and wealth creation for emerging nations, the FCTC is acting to shut down a valuable sector that will, and has, contributed substantially to the development of some of Africa’s poorest nations.
At the regional meeting of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association in Zimbabwe in July, we called on all participating nations to protect the status of tobacco exports in the international trading system.
We reiterate that call to the government now. Growers are concerned about efforts by the FCTC to change how tobacco is treated in the international trading system and its attempts to prevent tobacco-producing countries from legitimately defending and benefiting from those exports.
• Van der Merwe is a tobacco farmer and president of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association www.bdlive.co.za
Health bureaucrats unfairly targeting tobacco farmers Africa
THE livelihood of more than 30-million tobacco farmers and workers in more than 120 countries is being held ransom by a handful of bureaucrats in Geneva, most of whom have never visited a tobacco farm.
More than 20 of these countries are in Africa, and for seven of them (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) tobacco is a major component of their agricultural sector. In some African countries, the sector contributes up to 30% of gross domestic product, 25% of government revenues and up to 45% of foreign exchange earnings.
In Malawi, for example, seven out of 10 Malawians are directly and indirectly affected by tobacco farming, with 65%-95% of rural household income linked to the crop. Destroy that and you condemn a nation and its people to perpetual poverty.
Yet African farmers are being dictated to by health officials far removed from the agricultural sector. In fact, these same officials have publicly stated they will not engage with farmers and have successfully excluded them and their representative bodies from a United Nations (UN) forum that will determine their future at a conference in Moscow next month. Moreover, these same officials have even excluded the media and public from the last World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of the Parties (COP). One wonders what this UN body has to hide?
This is the new imperialism. Gone are the days of simply imposing one’s might on a colonised nation; today, it is done through corrupting the machinery of a legitimate organisation — the UN, in this case — and driving an agenda as paternalistic and damaging as any colonial regime.
Who are these bureaucrats? They form a clique within the WHO — a laudable body that has achieved enormous successes in global healthcare — that is obsessed with the cigarette industry. And instead of waging a legitimate and transparent campaign to persuade consumers not to smoke, they have switched their attention to a much easier, a more vulnerable target: the tobacco leaf grower. The farmer is always the person, historically, that has been denied a voice.
Tobacco is a legal product whose primary value chain is worth more than $10bn to Southern Africa alone. Its use as a consumer item is already highly regulated in most countries and is subject to high so-called "sin taxes" that account for a substantial contribution to national budgets.
So why pick on the farmer? The framework for global tobacco control was set by the FCTC and came into force in 2005. The treaty’s governing body, the COP — which now numbers more than 175 — committed to a range of measures around demand reduction, supply reduction and international co-operation. COP has met five times and its sixth session will be held in the Russian capital Moscow from October 13-18.
It has failed on all three measures, but its most egregious failures are in supply reduction and international co-operation. The former is simply a matter of economics: while there is a demand for tobacco — a legal product — farmers should not be denied their right to grow it. Yet recommendations to be put to the COP next month include a prohibition on support for tobacco farmers. Moreover, these recommendations will be made by health officials without the presence of agriculture ministries to provide balance.
The argument that growing tobacco in Africa detracts from food production is part of the Geneva bureaucrats’ smoke and mirrors campaign. In almost every tobacco-producing country in Africa, tobacco forms part of a diverse cropping system and is an important and reliable income source that enhances food security rather than reducing it. Numerous studies have shown that there is no direct causal link between tobacco cultivation and poverty.
Yet, the FCTC continues to target the legitimate tobacco leaf farmer.
The issue of international co-operation is a more complex and contentious one. The FCTC wants to force through a provision that gives health issues priority over trade agreements. In other words, Geneva health bureaucrats will determine trade policies on tobacco. More than 90% of all of Africa’s tobacco is exported: it is one of the top 10 products, by value, traded within the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. Yet, the decision by a bunch of Geneva health bureaucrats, if allowed to pass uncontested, could destroy the livelihood of millions of farmers and their dependants — and their nations — throughout Africa.
Apart from this, singling out the tobacco crop would be a tacit endorsement of "disguised protectionism" and possibly set a precedent whereby governments could forfeit their obligations under pre-existing treaties. We already have an efficient UN organisation established in 1995 that deals with trade, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and its Dispute Settlement Understanding. To date, the mechanism has dealt with more than 500 cases of which there was only one case involving tobacco control regulations. The WTO ruled in favour of the tobacco-producing country. Which is probably why the FCTC now wants to usurp it.
The WTO provides a level playing field for all countries and all products, embodies committee structure where concerns can be raised, and operates a dispute settlement system that ensures a high level of compliance.
International trade law has been developed through consensus and through interpretation of WTO dispute settlement systems. The goal was to create a level playing field and avoid "unjustifiable discrimination" or "disguised restrictions on international trade". It has largely been successful.
As it stands, there is no conflict between international trade rules and health laws. Nor are trade agreements an obstacle for regulators to push through measures to protect public health. So why try to override it?
The essence of public international law is that it does not favour one international agreement over another and that it embodies the spirit of the harmony of international treaties regulated by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
The FCTC goes against the spirit and the letter of the convention.
The African continent is rising and farmers will be the backbone of that effort. Agriculture accounts for 65% of Africa’s employment and 75% of its domestic trade. According to the UN International Development report, Agribusiness for Africa’s Prosperity, agriculture will drive Africa’s economic growth for years to come.
So while it is recognised that trade is a key driver of growth and wealth creation for emerging nations, the FCTC is acting to shut down a valuable sector that will, and has, contributed substantially to the development of some of Africa’s poorest nations.
At the regional meeting of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association in Zimbabwe in July, we called on all participating nations to protect the status of tobacco exports in the international trading system.
We reiterate that call to the government now. Growers are concerned about efforts by the FCTC to change how tobacco is treated in the international trading system and its attempts to prevent tobacco-producing countries from legitimately defending and benefiting from those exports.
• Van der Merwe is a tobacco farmer and president of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association www.bdlive.co.za