Ukraine has been a suspiciously strong voice in campaigning for pro-tobacco legislation in the international trade arena, finding partnership with an industry whose products kill millions yearly.
The fight between tobacco companies lobbying their multibillion-dollar interests and anti-smoking activists, who have much less to spend, is fierce around the world.
Australia, Great Britain, Norway and Canada and other developed nations continue to toughen up tobacco regulations. While Ukraine has made progress — banning indoor smoking and advertising while hiking taxes — more needs to be done to curb the addiction in a nation in which as many as 100,000 people die prematurely.
In one key area, in particular, Ukraine’s officials remain on the wrong side of the fight.
The issue is packaging, especially the movement around the globe to take away one of the last marketing and advertising opportunities that the tobacco industry has left: the cigarette pack.
Studies have found that moving to plain and standardized packaging, with no logos or bright colors, reduces smoking.
One of the trailblazers in the area has been Australia, whose plain packaging law of March 13, 2012 has been challenged by Ukraine. The nation’s officials alleged that the packaging interfereses with individual property rights and harms trade.
Hanna Hopko, the member of parliament who heads its committee of international affairs, worked for five years as an public health advocate before her election to the Verkhovna Rada in October.
“This case of Ukraine against Australia and already against Moldova is adding to the negative perception of Ukraine in the world,” Hopko said.
Instead of working on economic reforms, the Economy Ministry is lobbying the interests of a harmful industry, Hopko said.
In Australia, all cigarette packages must be of one olive color, with the same font and big cautionary labels on each side warning the consumer that smoking causes major health damage. Ireland and Great Britain recently approved the standardized packaging as well.
“The Ukrainian Economy Ministry was categorically against it,” said Andriy Skipalskyi, chairman of the board of Smoke Free Ukraine, a non-profit organization.
The only countries that supported Ukraine’s decision were Nicaragua, Honduras and Cuba.
But Hopko sees hope in the new leadership.
Economy Minister Aivarus Abromavicius has not taken any action against Australia’s standard packaging, discontinuing the support of the overthrown regime of President Viktor Yanukovych.
Abromavicius also fired ex-deputy economy minister Valeriy Pyatnitskyi, considereed the main lobbyist of the tobacco industry within the government, Hopko said.
Pyatnitskyi, who is now an advisor to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, refused to comment.
Konstyantin Krasovsky, the director of the Ukrainian Center for Tobacco Control, a research and advocacy organization, has spent 20 years on tobacco control in Ukraine. He is one of Ukraine’s most well-known public health advocates.
Krasovsky says it is impossible to reach a compromise between the tobacco industry and anti-tobacco coalitions. “We want people to smoke less while they want people to smoke more,” he said.
The tobacco industry is involved in Ukraine’s World Trade Organization claims against Australia and corrupting Ukraine’s officials to take its side, Krasovsky claimed.
The world’s major four tobacco companies operate in Ukraine – Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco International, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco — and hold a 98 percent market share.
In 2013, Ukraine exported $292 million tobacco products while it imported $454 million, according to the Ukrainian government.
Taras Kachka, acting president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, said that the four major companies have manufacturing plants in Ukraine geared for massive export. Because of this, Kachka said that Ukraine has an economic interest in protecting the industry and, therefore, the claim should not be dismissed.
But Taras Shevchenko, director of the Media Law Institute, a human rights think tank, pointed out that Ukraine didn’t sell any tobacco products to Australia in 2012 or since then. Instead, the tobacco industry is using Ukraine to lobby its interests internationally, Shevchenko said. “Tobacco companies look for such countries where it is easier to promote their interests via the government,” he said.
The Kyiv Post contacted all four tobacco giants via email, but only got a response from British American Tobacco.
“Regarding the Economy Ministry of Ukraine, the Ukrainian tobacco industry has a long-lasting record of cooperation aimed at support and protection of its legitimate economic interests in the course of international trade,” said British American Tobacco.
In 2012, a Reuters article identified British American Tobacco as providing assistance to Ukraine for its WTO challenges against Australia.
Skipalskyi said Ukraine should abandon its claim against Australia. ”It’s very easy to do in legal terms,” said Skipalskyi. “The only thing that we did not have was the political will.”
But there is still resistance.
Svitlana Zaytseva, head of Ukraine’s Economy Ministry division on cooperation with the WTO, disagreed. She said laws similar to those of Australia limit property rights and create barriers to trade. “In every case in the World Trade Organization there is a commercial interest” which will shape the public interest, Zaytseva added.
But others, such as Krasovsky, do not find Zaytseva’s argument credible. For Krasovsky, human lives are put at stake by challenging plain-packaging laws.
Smoking is especially popular among youth, where cigarette brands often define status. Standardized packaging eliminates this hook into young smokers. After plain cigarette packages were adopted, tobacco consumption in Australia went down, Krasovsky concluded.
The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco will kill more than 8 million people annually by 2030, most in developing countries.
Kyiv Post staff writer Ilya Timtchenko can be reached at [email protected].
