The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective:

To examine public health measures within the context of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and discuss why Parties to that treaty should not allow WTO concerns to chill their willingness to implement comprehensive tobacco control programs.

Methods:

Legal research and analysis: An analysis of the general protections afforded tobacco control measures by a country's participation in the Framework Convention, and, as a case study, how the interaction between one WTO agreement – the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade – and regulatory requirements under the FCTC might play out in a trade dispute.

Results:

While past WTO jurisprudence does provide cause for concern that domestic public health measures might be challenged under WTO rules, a closer examination of decisions by GATT and WTO dispute settlement panels and the WTO appellate body suggests that trade agreements may not be quite the boogeyman they are often made out to be.