Asked in an earlier interview whether Philip Morris conducts a formal campaign targeting the treaty's biennial conferences, Cave gave a flat "no." "We're respectful of the fact that this is their week and their event," Cave said in an interview in New Delhi, as the parties to the treaty met last November. Cave, a director of corporate affairs, said that while Philip Morris disagrees with some aspects of the FCTC treaty and consults with delegates offsite during its conferences, ultimately the delegations "make their own decisions."
DAYS CAMPAIGN SUBVERT SERIES
In a series of interviews in Europe and Asia, Philip Morris executive Andrew Cave said company employees are under strict instructions to obey both the company's own conduct policies and local law in the countries where they operate. "The fact that Reuters has seen internal emails discussing our engagement with governments does not make those interactions inappropriate." "As a company in a highly regulated industry, speaking with governments is part of our everyday business," Tony Snyder, vice president of communications, said in a statement in response to Reuters' findings. Philip Morris International says there is nothing improper about its executives engaging with government officials. That's happening: a Reuters analysis of delegates to the FCTC's biennial conference shows a rise since the first convention in 2006 in the number of officials from ministries like trade, finance and agriculture for whom tobacco revenues can be a higher priority than health concerns. The documents, combined with reporting in 14 countries from Brazil to Uganda to Vietnam, reveal that a goal of Philip Morris is to increase the number of delegates at the treaty conventions who are not from health ministries or involved in public health. It also lobbies at the country level, where the makeup of FCTC delegations is determined and treaty decisions are turned into legislation. It targets the FCTC conferences where delegates gather to decide on anti-smoking guidelines. Philip Morris works to subvert the treaty on multiple levels. Taken as a whole, they present a company that has focused its vast global resources on bringing to heel the world's tobacco control treaty.
But Philip Morris has come to view it as a "regulatory runaway train" driven by "anti-tobacco extremists" - a description contained in the document, a 2014 PowerPoint presentation.Ĭonfidential company documents and interviews with current and former Philip Morris employees reveal an offensive that stretches from the Americas to Africa to Asia, from hardscrabble tobacco fields to the halls of political power, in what may be one of the broadest corporate lobbying efforts in existence.ĭating from 2009 to 2016, the thousands of pages include emails between executives, PowerPoint presentations, planning papers, policy toolkits, national lobbying plans and market analyses. In an internal document, the company says it supported the enactment of the treaty. Reuters has found that Philip Morris International is running a secretive campaign to block or weaken treaty provisions that save millions of lives by curbing tobacco use. The object of these clandestine activities: the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, or FCTC, a treaty aimed at reducing smoking globally. Philip Morris International would soon be holding secret meetings with delegates from the government of Vietnam and other treaty members. Unknown to treaty organizers, they were staying at a hotel an hour from the convention center, working from an operations room there. In fact, executives from the largest publicly traded tobacco firm had flown in from around the world to New Delhi for the anti-tobacco meeting. A Philip Morris representative later told Reuters its employees did not turn up because the company knew it was not welcome. There was a big name missing from the group: Philip Morris International.
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