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(Sponsor: New York Chapter)
WHEREAS, the American College of Physicians (ACP) has an international presence having established chapters in many countries outside the USA including six chapters in Canada, six chapters in Latin America, four chapters in Asia, chapters in three branches of the US armed forces with members stationed throughout the world, and many other members working worldwide1 ; and
WHEREAS, the ACP 2015-2016 Strategy has a goal to establish and promote ethical ideals and to advocate for responsible positions on public policy "...relating to health care for the benefit of the public..."; and
WHEREAS, the ACP has taken positions on national health policy, and other governmental policies; and
WHEREAS, the ACP in 2010 published a policy monograph on tobacco control and prevention that advocated for public health tobacco control policy measures to protect the public from tobacco products, including a ban on flavored tobacco products, increased state taxes, increased public education, and increase in tobacco control funding; and
WHEREAS, right now multinational tobacco companies are using trade laws as the basis for litigating to undermine or thwart public health tobacco control measures like restrictions on flavored tobacco products, required plain paper packaging, restrictions on advertising, tobacco product taxes, cigarette package warning labels, all of which have been proven to reduce tobacco use thus protecting the health of citizens; and
WHEREAS, American and other national trade representatives are now negotiating trade agreements with the aim of trade equality or global fair trade to promote employment and quality of life in order to foster development of a stable and more peaceful world. Specifically, American trade negotiators are involved in negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that may end up serving as a model free trade agreement for the 21st century; and
WHEREAS, trade treaties and laws do not protect or promote the trade of harmful illegal drugs, nuclear weapons, chemical warfare, other weapons of mass destruction, or occupations that involve terrorism, assassination or genocide; and
WHEREAS, tobacco products cause the deaths of over six million people2 including more than 480,0003 Americans, every year, rivaling or eclipsing the destruction of recent wars, and that tobacco products, whether from the USA, Japan, or Brazil, cause diseases and premature deaths that reduce worker productivity4 and consume health care dollars; and
WHEREAS, the country of Malaysia has proposed that tobacco be completely "carved out" of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement but has received little support from other countries including the USA; and
WHEREAS, the ACP cosigned a letter to the President on September 11, 20135 that advocated for removing tobacco control measures and tobacco products from trade agreements and the assurance that tobacco control measures will not be subject to challenge through the TPP and all future trade agreements; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Board of Regents publicly reasserts a strong position that tobacco products, known to be addictive and harmful, must be prevented from receiving the protections and benefits of free trade, and that no agreement, treaty or law should impede or supersede a country's sovereign right to protect its citizens' health from harmful tobacco products; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Board of Regents not support any trade agreement which might be used as the basis for litigating to undermine or thwart public health tobacco control measures like restrictions on flavored tobacco products, required plain paper packaging, restrictions on advertising, tobacco product taxes, cigarette package warning labels, all of which have been proven to reduce tobacco use thus protecting the health of citizens; and be if further
RESOLVED, that the Board of Regents encourages members and chapters throughout the world to advocate governments in every country where ACP has members including the USA to exempt tobacco products from the benefits and protections of trade agreements and laws.
1https://www.acponline.org/about_acp/chapters/index.html website accessed July 15, 2015
2http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/
3http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets
4http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets
5http://www.acponline.org/acp_policy/letters/president_tobacco_letter_2013.pdf Accessed July 15, 2015