This billboard advertising cigarettes is located on the Norman Manley Highway, Kingston. The World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which was ratified by 40 countries will restrict advertising by cigarette companies.
-Andrew Smith
THIS MONTH'S ratification of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) binds countries to act in
prescribed ways in respect of tobacco advertising and control.
The WHO FCTC was ratified by 40 countries this month, and will become part of international law in 90 days, but Jamaica is not among the list of ratifying countries.
Jamaica had been at the forefront of the move to have this convention, an international legal instrument that will bind the 191 WHO member states to act in certain way regarding tobacco advertising and promotion, agricultural diversification, smuggling and subsidies.
NOT COMPLETED IN TIME
However, Dr. Eva Lewis-Fuller, the health ministry's director of international health, who had been heading Jamaica's delegation to the intergovernmental negotiating meeting, said that "the process" to be among the historic 40 ratifying countries had not been completed in time. She said that "everything is poised for ratification".
"Our process has been going through but we have not made it in time to be among the first 40 countries ratifying the convention," she said. "We have to await the attorney-general's office because ratification is a more entrenched and significant adoption of the treaty, and this means that we have to have laws and regulations to implement the principles of the treaty."
For this process to take place, various bodies such as the cabinet, the ministry of foreign affairs and the attorney-general's office have to ensure that there is no incompatibility with the country's existing laws. Dr. Lewis-Fuller said, too, that cabinet had assigned a joint select committee for human resources and development to review the document (the convention). Stakeholders had also been carrying out research to assess the economic impact that this framework could have on Jamaica.
"One of the main proposals was the increase in taxes and I think that it was feared that (this) would grind tobacco to a halt and decrease revenue flow. However, the research is showing that an increase in taxes to an optimum level, approximately 70 per cent of the retail price would have a win-win effect both in terms of reducing tobacco consumption and its sequalae and increasing revenue. This has been shown by simulation that we have done in the study," she said.
The Framework Convention was adopted last May by the 191 WHO member states but a further process of ratification is required to bring the document into international law. Forty countries were required to ratify the treaty to make it law; Peru became the 40th country to ratify the document on November 30. However, it is still expected that other countries, including Jamaica, will become party to the treaty through ratification.
IMPROVE HEALTH
The WHO says that the Framework Convention, when it enters into force on February 28, 2005, will improve health by contributing to the reduction of tobacco consumption which is at present linked to five million premature deaths every year. By 2020, it is estimated, if current trends are not reversed, 10 million people will die prematurely as a result of tobacco use. There are about 1.3 billion smokers and it is estimated that 50 per cent (or 650 million people) of regular tobacco users will die prematurely.
The treaty's provision will set international standards on tobacco price and tax increases, tobacco advertising and sponsorship, labelling, illicit trade and second-hand smoke. The WHO also states in its documents that the Framework Convention "is intended to control what has become the second biggest killer of time."
