Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
international public health treaty mark the Fctc as an appropriate context within
which to examine contemporary relationships between policy communities. one
conceptual framework within which to examine how public health concerns interact
with foreign, development, and trade policy agendas identifies four basic models
of supplicant, trojan horse, partnership, and independent actor (lee and McInnes
2004). each of the models can be regarded as plausibly depicting some aspect of the
FCTC process, albeit from conflicting perspectives.
Supplicant
the image of public health as supplicant to more powerful and better resourced
policy communities describes an attempt to secure funding and support through
advocating the benefits of global health for stability and economic growth. Such an
image is consistent with a broader critique of the wHo strategy under brundtland as
embodying a largely uncritical adoption of neo-liberal economic orthodoxy (thomas
and weber 2004). the commission on Macroeconomics and Health, for example,
was explicitly predicated on making an economic case for promoting global health,
downgrading any emphasis on health as a fundamental human right (Waitzkin
2003; banarji 2002). while such a strategy may be entirely understandable from a
realpolitik
perspective, the advantages of winning powerful allies may be offset by
precluding policies necessary for the achievement of core public health objectives.
the Fctc process could be viewed as exhibiting such characteristics given
both the wHo's reliance on the world bank in demonstrating the economic case for
tobacco control and its desire to secure the support of donor countries. Such concerns
were voiced during the final negotiations, when the weak provisions on advertising in
the proposed text were criticised as inadequate and as subordinating Fctc objectives
and the preferences of developing countries to those of a handful of obdurate states
such as the U.S., Germany, and Japan (Fleck 2003; action on Smoking and Health
2003). The constraints imposed by operating within the ideological confines of neo-
liberalism are most dramatically evident in the clear subordination of the Fctc to trade
agreements implicit in the text submitted to the penultimate round of negotiations:
article 2(3) nothing in this convention and its related protocols shall be interpreted as
implying in any way a change in rights and obligations of a Party under any existing
international treaty …
Article 4(5) While recognizing that tobacco control and trade measures can be implemented
in a mutually supportive manner, Parties agree that tobacco control measures shall be
transparent, implemented in accordance with their existing international obligations, and
shall not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination in international
trade (wHo 2002).
It nevertheless failed to include any 'health over trade' language despite both
the powerful evidence base regarding the impact of trade liberalisation on tobacco
