ITGA urges support for tobacco industry

MANILA, Philippines – The International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA), which has 24 member countries including the Philippines, urged their respective governments to assure support to the industry amid uncertainties and tactics employed by a United Nations (UN) agency.

The industry has called for a sustainable future in the face of uncertainties engulfing the tobacco market as a result of a steep decline in demand, without any present options that may ensure the subsistence of tobacco-growing communities.

The ITGA has earlier expressed their displeasure over the “undemocratic” and “exclusionary” tactics of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) to ban appointed and elected officials from participating in the Conference of Parties to be held in India next month.

“Philippine tobacco growers have watched with utter frustration the increasingly stronger exclusion measures imposed by the WHO FCTC, which we consider totally inappropriate, particularly because they come from a UN organization that claims that transparency is the guiding principle in all processes,” PhilTobacco Growers Association president Saturnino Distor said.

The Conference of the Parties is the governing body of the WHO FCTC, which keeps the implementation of the Convention under regular review and takes the decisions necessary to promote its effective implementation. It may also adopt protocols, annexes and amendments to the Convention.

The ITGA continues to call on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to intervene in their behalf and exercise his authority to look into this breach of international law and ensure that the UN-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control conforms with its obligations under its charter.

Tobacco-growing communities globally seek to jointly defend the sector’s legitimacy by publicizing the significant contributions made by tobacco to their regions and countries.

Tobacco growers have insisted that they grow a legal crop for a legal market and it provides a livelihood to millions of workers globally.

ITGA said tobacco growers recognize the need to introduce measures to curb tobacco consumption but, in over ten years since the inception of the WHO FCTC, they have not been afforded any opportunity to participate and present the sector’s realities.

“The WHO FCTC has underestimated the consequences of many of its proposed measures and refused to understand that most of them would not have any impact on consumption but would indeed affect the livelihood of tobacco growers and their families,” the industry said.

Tobacco growers demand that their right to consultation in the development of any policy that affects them directly be guaranteed.

They also pushed that the significant economic contribution made by tobacco to the economies of growing countries be recognized and that a market assessment be conducted.

The Philippines, in particular, registered a 0.95 percent drop in local production in the second quarter of 2016 due to producers shift to corn and eggplant because of high cost of curing materials, based on latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Lower production coupled with sustained demand pushed up the price of tobacco by 5.12 percent.

The ITGA is a non-profit entity that advocates for the inclusion of tobacco growers in global discussions and provides a collective voice in the international scene.

The 24 member countries of ITGA, which was organized in 1984, are South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Croatia, Korea, USA, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Malawi, Mexico, Pakistan, Kenya, Dominican Republic, Thailand, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.