5. Discourse and Status: DISAGREE AND ALLEGE This particular case study indicates possible points of disagreement in the future when geographic indications make their way to non-food agricultural products. The status of the case is nonexistent and still waiting for the first allegation.

6. Forum and Scope: WTO ; MULTILATERAL

7. Decision Breadth: 148 ; All the countries of the WTO

8. Legal Standing: TREATY

       The Uruguay Round of the WTO established new agreements on agriculture as far as market access, export subsidies, and sanitary measures. Some important developments in the tobacco industry were that the European Union reduced its export subsidies. Since 2000, “the EU’s maximum annual allowable quantity of subsidized tobacco will be 112,600 tons”, which is almost 100,000 tons less than the quantity of subsidized exports in the early 90s [1]. Additionally, the EU reduced its cigar tariffs by 50%, its cigarette and manufactured tobacco tariffs by 36%, and its unmanufactured tobacco by 20%.

        Other countries’ tobacco industries were affected by the Uruguay Round, including the Philippines whose tariffs on Virginia tobacco and tobacco products were reduced 5%. Also, Japan agreed to continue its zero duty on cigarettes and reduced the cigar duty by 4%. Hong Kong bound its tariffs for tobacco and tobacco products at zero. South Africa established a 16,773 ton tariff-rate quota for tobacco. New Zealand reduced its cigarette tariff to 8.5%. The United States was also bound to new commitments on tobacco during the Uruguay Rounds, including the elimination of its cigar wrapper tariffs and a 55% reduction of most tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes. The U.S. reduced its tariffs on tobacco stems by 20% and its tariffs on unmanufactured tobacco by 15% [2].

Uruguay Round Agreements on Tobacco and Tobacco Products [3]:

European Union	-reduced export of subsidized tobacoo by 50%
	-reduced cigar tariffs by 50%
	-reduced cigarette and manufactured tobacco tariffs by 36%
	-reduced unmanufactured tobacco by 20%
Philippines	-reduced tariffs on Virginia tobacco and tobacco products by 5%
Japan	-continued zero duty on cigarrettes
	-reduced cigar duty by 4%
Hong Kong	-bound tobacco and tobacco product tariffs at zero
South Africa	-established a 16,773 ton tariff-rate quota for tobacco
New Zealand	-reduced cigarette tariff to 8.5%
United States	-eliminated cigar wrapper tariffs
	-reduced cigar, cigarrette, and tobacco tariffs by 55%
	-reduced tobacco stem tariffs by 20%
	-reduced unmanufactured tobacco tariffs by 15%

        One of the big cases filed under GATT was the case of Thai cigarettes. In 1966, Thailand prohibited imported cigarettes and tobacco preparation but allowed the sale of domestic cigarettes which were subject to several taxes. In 1990, the United States complained that the import restrictions were inconsistent with GATT trade rules, but Thailand defended itself saying that imported cigarettes contained dangerous additives that made them more harmful than Thai cigarettes. The GATT panel voted in favor of the US [4].

      So far, the geographic indication rights accorded under the TRIPS agreement protect only wine and spirits. However, the specifications of the agreement could easily be applied to other products, including tobacco products. In the TRIPS agreement, the deciding factors on whether a product name is a geographic indication are whether the product has a quality, reputation, or characteristic specific to a location. TRIPS protects the name of a product whose name indicates its place of origin, kind, quality, or intended purpose, and protects against names that mislead the public as to the true place of origin. Also, TRIPS will not protect a product that is not first protected through legislation in its place of origin [5].

          Under these specifications, certain types of tobacco could potentially become geographic indications and be protected under TRIPS.  Since TRIPS protects place of origin, technically Peru and Ecuador could claim tobacco as a geographic indication. Tobacco originated in North America, but its seed and use was spread when the Europeans came. In fact, the tobacco that was mass-cultivated in the Virginia colony actually was not the native tobacco from Virginia, but the sweet native tobacco of Tobago. If developing Latin American countries could somehow make a claim on Virginian tobacco and claim that its tobacco seed was stolen, perhaps they could sue American companies for hundreds of years of profit off of their indigenous product. It will be important for the WTO to establish just how far back in time geographic indication claims can go.

III. Geographic Clusters

9. Geographic Locations: Middle East ; Middle East Asia ; Turkey

10. Sub-National Factors: Yes
           Izmir and Samsum in the South West are where most Turkish tobacco is grown.

11. Type of Habitat: Temperate

IV. Trade Clusters

12. Type of Measure: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

13. Direct v. Indirect Impacts: DIRECT

14. Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental Impact

    a. Directly Related to Product: Yes

    b. Indirectly Related to Product: Yes

      If specific species of tobacco were prohibited from being grown in certain regions, the environmental impact of growing tobacco on the land would no doubt be lessened. The amount of the impact depends on what is done with the land after tobacco cultivation stops. If the land is used to grow other agricultural products, the soil may perhaps stay fertile longer, but maybe different types of fertilizer and pesticides will affect the soil and watershed differently. If the land is not used, and a forest grows over the land, it is safe to say that the environmental impact of the trade measure will be positive in some areas while increased production in the species-specific areas will most likely result in a negative environmental impact.

     c. Not Related to Product: No

     d. Related to Process: Yes

     The way that the tobacco is cured is directly related to the environment. If the tobacco is cured using wood, the forests surrounding the tobacco farm will surely be destroyed.

15. Trade Product Identification: RAW : Tobacco Leaf

16. Economic Data: Industry Output- Billions

17. Impact of Trade Restriction: LOW

18. Industry Sector: Manufactured Products

19. Exporters and Importers: Greece and Many

1. Key Exporter:

       Although China is the world’s biggest producer of tobacco (its projected production estimate for 2004 is 2,013,735 metric tons in dry weight), Brazil is the biggest exporter (its projected exporting estimate for 2004 is 564,000 metric tons in dry weight) [6]. This is because China consumes most of what it produces. It is the largest tobacco consumer in the world. In the 1970s, Brazilian farmers began to switch from food crops to its dark tobacco crop due to an increase in world demand. Since multinational tobacco companies began to invest in Brazil in the 1990s, it now produces mostly Virginia tobacco and some Burley tobacco. Virginia tobacco is flue-cured in mostly wooden structures, while Burley and Oriental tobacco are more commonly fire-cured, air-cured, and sun-cured. The forests of Brazil, including the Amazon rain forest, are intensely affected by increasing tobacco production in Brazil because its wood is needed in order to flue-cure the tobacco [7]. Brazil now has limited cash-crop alternatives to tobacco growing, which makes it dependent upon its tobacco exports.
     Turkey is the biggest producer and exporter of oriental tobacco, which is the only tobacco component of Turkish cigarettes. Oriental tobacco is used by other manufacturers in creating blended cigarettes, such as Camel Turkish blend cigarettes. Oriental tobacco accounts for less than 10 percent of global tobacco production, and Turkey produces around 65 percent of it. Other countries that produce oriental tobacco include Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia, and former Soviet satellites. Overall export demand for oriental tobacco is declining [8].

Key Importer: Quantity and Value Data

       Since Russia has a high tobacco consumption rate, and a very low tobacco production rate, it ends up being the world’s key importer at 275,042 metric tons in dry weight [9]. Tabakpom is the domestic tobacco company, which accounts for over half of Russia’s cigarette sales and produces the traditional papirosi unfiltered cigarette. The papirosi mainly consists of legally and illegally imported Oriental tobacco [10].

2. Relevant Trade Measures:

      International trade agreements have undermined locally-decided tobacco control policies by contesting policy measures such as warning labels, advertising and marketing restrictions, ingredient content and information labels, local pollution rules, bans on misleading descriptions of cigarettes, as well as directly interfering with tariff and tax policy and policies regarding tobacco distribution networks.

     The World Bank strongly recognizes tobacco-related health problems (which also effect labor power) as an impediment to development, and has reported that excise taxes would work to reduce smoking rates. The World Bank also has reported that tobacco trade liberalization would raise smoking rates and decrease public welfare.

       In the 1980s, U.S. government agencies began to pressure Asian countries to open their markets to U.S. cigarette exports with the threat of trade sanctions. With declining smoking rates in the U.S. due to public health ad campaigns, U.S. companies sought new tobacco markets overseas. Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan had either banned or put tariffs on imported cigarettes. Thailand was the only country that did not comply with U.S. requests. Because of lax advertising laws and loopholes, U.S. companies were able to successfully create large markets of women and children tobacco consumers. “Overall, smoking rates in the countries that acceded to U.S. demands rose by 10.3%. Thailand, however, challenged the United States’ use of trade sanction at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), arguing that its restriction on foreign tobacco imports was necessary to control the supply of cigarettes and to prevent the importation of cigarettes which contained dangerous additives” [11]. A GATT panel declared Thailand’s import ban discriminatory, however, it allowed Thailand’s ban on tobacco advertising and marketing as long as it applied to both domestic and foreign producers.

       During the Asian economic crisis, Thailand appealed to the IMF for a $17.2 billion loan as long as Thailand privatized its state-owned enterprises, particularly the Thai Tobacco Monopoly (TTM). After a year, Thailand agreed to sell the profitable TTM. The world protested IMF pressure because it was estimated that the TTM employees association would be reduced by 50%, and also because multinational tobacco corporations would exert influence in Thailand and raise tobacco-related disease [12]. In 2002, the Thai government faced so much popular opposition that it suspended its tobacco privatization plans.

      Turkey had been under pressure from the IMF to privatize the state-run alcohol and tobacco industry for several years. During loan negotiations at the end of 2000 Turkey had an economic crisis and quickly agreed to phase out the state monopoly agency TEKEL. The Turkish government had to pass legislation in Turkey in order to gain the $15.7 billion IMF-World Bank loan. The legislation ended state subsidies for farmers, enabled TEKEL privatization, established a tobacco production regulatory board, and gave special import and price rights to high cigarette producing companies. TEKEL employees, tobacco farmers, and health groups protested the legislation. In 2002, the Turkish Parliament ratified the law to deregulate the tobacco industry and British American Tobacco (BAT) bought the monopoly. BAT has a new plant in Turkey and it does not purchase tobacco from local farmers who don’t grow the type of tobacco they use in their blends [13].

       In 1999, the agricultural state of Moldova was having post-independence economic turmoil, and the IMF agreed to give a $35 million loan as long as the tobacco and wine sectors were privatized in order to increase foreign competition. Most state enterprises and land had been transferred to individuals following independence, but the public did not want to privatize the successful wine and tobacco industries. Moldova said they wouldn’t privatize, and the IMF put the loan on hold, causing other World Bank and European Union loans to be put on hold as well. Pressed for cash, Moldova agreed to privatize the tobacco and wine sectors a year later.

    Although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has no consistent opinion on tobacco trade liberalization, it has supported the privatization of state-run tobacco companies and the reduction of tobacco excise taxes and tariffs in several states. The governments of many Eastern European and former Soviet Union states are responsible for tobacco product manufacturing and distribution. Although the IMF has generally been pushing for privatization, states have a large incentive to stay financially in control of the tobacco industry. Public health activists have pushed for continued state control because the states that opened their markets to foreign cigarettes in the 1980s have seen a very large increase in public smoking habits and choices, leading to greater market demand for tobacco products [14].

       The major players of the tobacco multinational corporations are BAT, Japan Tobacco, and Philip Morris. Instead of liberalizing the state-run monopoly slowly, the highest bidding multinational gets the largest amount of the market with a rather large amount of price control. After tobacco privatization, the company can buy the tobacco from anywhere. If they don’t buy from domestic sources and they don’t hire domestic tobacco workers, many jobs will be lost.

3. Top 10 Leading Exporters and Importers:

Table 1: Top Unmanufactured Tobacco Exporters [15]

Brazil has been the uncontested top world exporter of raw tobacco since the turn of the century. Other leading exporters are the United States, followed by China, Malawi, Italy, and Turkey. Brazil, the United States, China, Malawi, and Italy mainly export Virginia and some Burley tobacco. Turkey is the world’s number one exporter of Oriental tobacco. (See Table 1)

Table 2: Top Unmanufactured Tobacco Importers [16]

Russia is the world’s number one importer of raw tobacco. Russia mainly imports oriental tobacco from Turkey and former Soviet satellites. Other top importers are the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and Japan. They import Virginia tobacco for manufacturing cigarettes and oriental tobacco for use in blended cigarettes. Many of these importers are buying from their own companies, which grow tobacco in foreign countries.
(See Table 2)

V. Environment Clusters

20. Environmental Problem Type: Culture

21. Name, Type, and Diversity of Species

Name: Nicotiana rustica, Nicotiana tabacum

Type: Nicotiana tabacum is the type originally grown in the tropical Americas. It is the type now commercially grown in Virignia and no longer grows in the wild. Nicotiana rustica is the type native to Virginia, but is now commonly grown in Syria and Turkey.

22. Resource Impact and Effect: LOW ; 10-20 years

      Although tobacco has a rich cultural tradition, it has always been very controversial in its impacts on the human body and society, and more recently on the environment. Smoking tobacco products is dangerous for people’s health, both the direct inhalers and the people around the smoke. The more tobacco producers there are, the more tobacco is shipped worldwide and affects more people, particularly in developing countries where the effects are devastating and more people smoke. In poor families, the money that would have been used for food is in many cases used for tobacco which results in malnutrition. According to the Non-Smokers’ Movement of Australia, developing country economies are drained due to their huge trade deficits in tobacco products. They also noted that tobacco consumption in developing countries rises with per capita income up to 5000 USD after which the effect is less .

      In developing countries, tobacco cultivation causes deforestation. Without fertilizer, growers must knock down trees to get fertile soil since tobacco depletes soil much faster than other crops. Also, wood is required for curing tobacco leaves in some processes. The wood is burned and excess CO2 is emitted and contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer, which protects Earth from radiation. Additionally, the pesticides and herbicides used on tobacco plants are washed into the rivers.

      Although some say that the tobacco industry creates jobs for people in developing countries, others say that it doesn’t matter because the industry is contributing to increased consumption. In many cases, the people getting their paycheck from these companies put a large percentage of their paycheck into buying tobacco products. This is particularly because the countries that are producing the tobacco are not producing the tobacco products. This chart from the World Health Organization shows how far the average developing country workers’ paycheck goes :

Required work time to buy cigarette pack vs. bread or rice [17]

Country	Marlboro	Local Brand	Bread (1kg)	Rice (1kg)
Brazil (Rio)	22 min.	18 min.	52 min.	13 min.
Canada	21 min.	17 min.	10 min.	11 min.
Chile	38 min.	33 min.	19 min.	25 min.
Hungary	71 min.	54 min.	25 min.	42 min.
India	102 min.	77 min.	34 min.	79 min.
Kenya	158 min.	92 min.	64 min.	109 min.
Mexico	49 min.	40 min.	49 min.	25 min.
Poland	56 min.	40 min.	21 min.	23 min.
UK	40 min.	40 min.	6 min.	8 min.

When individuals buy the locally produced brands, they save a little bit of money, however buying tobacco at all is a large percent of the paycheck. Individuals, communities, and habitat are drastically affected by the tobacco industry both directly and indirectly.

23. Urgency and Lifetime: Low ; 10-20 years

24. Substitutes: Like products

       Particularly regions that may have to stop cultivating a specific type of tobacco plant will be able to use the land to grow other types of agricultural products, which may be less harmful to the environment than tobacco plants which deplete the soil faster.

VI. Other Factors

25. Culture: Yes ;

Tobacco has played a very important part in traditional cultures around the world, beginning with the Native Americans. The most ancient tobacco related artifacts have been found in Peruvian and Ecuadorean Andes dating from 5000 to 3000 B.C. The snuffing tube is the most ancient artifact. The Native Americans would boil down a paste made from tobacco leaves and either put the jelly on their gums, or use a snuffing tube to inhale the paste into their noses. The snuffing tube had two long tubes, one end of which would be placed in the inhaler's nose, and a partner would blow into the end of the other tube in order to increase the tobacco's narcotic effect. In ancient America, tobacco was used as a medicine, an analgesic, an insecticide, and a symbol of the rites of passage:

Tobacco was sniffed, chewed, eaten, drunk, smeared over bodies, used in eyedrops and the enemas, and smoked. It was blown into warrior's faces before battle, over fields before planting, and over women prior to sex. It was offered to the gods and accepted as their gift, and not least it served as a simple narcotic for daily use by men and women. [18: 5]

After its discovery by Europeans, tobacco use became a trend among the elite classes. Always the subject of great controversy, tobacco was even believed by Europeans to be cure syphillis because of its numbing effect.

    As tobacco's popularity spread to the lower classes and across continents, it became an important tradition in many cultures. Each culture had its own trends for how it was used, but smoking became particularly popular in the Ottoman empire:

Narghile smokers developed a preference for the dark strong tobacco grown in Persia known as 'Latakia' thus creating a market entirely isolated from the weed's place of origin, which was forgotten, and the pleasure-loving Ottomans would have been astonished to learn that tobacco had been discovered by the Incas, a distant and extinct civilization, instead of being a traditional crop of the Levant. [19: 94]

26. Trans-Boundary Issues: Yes. Countries that will claim certain species as geographic indicators because of geographic origin will have to make a case for why they can claim it even if they have the same soil and tradition of cultivation and curing process as the country or part of the country next to it.

27. Rights: No

28. Relevant Literature

[1] USDA/FAS/COTS. World's Leading Unmanufactured Tobacco Producing, Trading, and   Consuming Countries. September 2004. Available [online]   <http://www.fas.usda.gov/tobacco/circular/2004/092004/TBL1sep2004.XLS>. 04 October 2004.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] World Trade Organization. "Environment-Related Disputes." Environment Backgrounder. Available [online] <http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/envir_backgrnd_e/c8s1_e.htm>. 9 October 2004.

[5] Berkey, Judson. "Implications of the WTO Protections for Food Geographic Indications." ASIL Insights. April 2000. Available [online] <http://www.asil.org/insights/insigh44.htm>. 14 October 2004.

[6] USDA/FAS/COTS.

[7] FAO Economic and Social Department. "Projections of Production of Tobacco Leaf." Projections   of Trade and Tobacco Production, Consumption and Trade to the Year 2010. Rome: Food and   Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2003. Available [online]   <http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/DOCREP/006/Y4956E/y4956e08.htm>.   04 October 2004.

[8] Ibid.

[9] USDA/FAS/COTS.

[10] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. WHO Global Status Report 1997. US Dept of   Health and Human Services. 25 June 2004. Available [online]   <http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/who/russianf.htm>. 15 October 2004.

[11] 11th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health. "Tobacco Fact Sheet." Tobacco and   International Trade. 11 August 2000. Available [online]   <http://tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/docs/intnl.pdf>. 14 September 2004.

[12] White, Anna and Robert Weissman. "The Hand-Off to Big Tobacco: IMF Support for Privatization   of State-Owned Tobacco Enterprises." Multinational Monitor Volume 23, Number 9.   September 2002. Available [online] <http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2002/02september/   sept02corp2.html>. 14 September 2004.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] USDA/FAS/COTS.

[16] Ibid.

[17] WHO. "Tobacco increases the poverty of individuals and families." World Health Organization.   2004. Available [online]   <http://www.who.int/tobacco/communications/events/wntd/2004/tobaccofacts_families/en/>. 15 September 2004.

[18] Gately, Iain. Tobacco: The Story of How Tobacco Seduced the World. NY: Grove Press. 2001.

[19]. Ibid.

Other Resources:

British American Tobacco Biodiversity Partnership Website. Available [online]   <http://www.batbiodiversity.org/>. 10 September 2004.

Brosnahan, Tim. "Turkish Tobacco." Turkey Travel Planner. Travel Info Exchange, Inc. 2004. Available [online] <http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/TravelDetails/Tobacco/TkTobacco.html>. 10 September 2004.

JLR & SFR. "Brief History of Tobacco Use and Abuse." Walter Reed Army Medical Center. 10   February 1998. Available [online]   <http://www.wramc.amedd.army.mil/education/tobaccohistory.htm>. 14 September 2004.

Liberty Science Center. "Origins in the Americas." Available [online]   <http://www.lsc.org/tobacco/farming/origins.html> 13 September 2004.

Non-Smokers' Movement of Australia, Inc. "Tobacco in the Third World." Clarion Centrefold   April-June 1990. Available [online] <http://www.nsma.org.au/world3.htm>. 15 September 2004.

Onder, Zeynep. "The Economics of Tobacco in Turkey: New evidence and demand estimates."   WHO Tobacco Control Papers. University of California. 2002. Available [online]   <http://repositories.cdlib.org/context/tc/article/1114/type/pdf/viewcontent/>. 12 September 2004.

Ozesmi, U. Environmental History of the Kizilirmak Delta, Turkey: Past and Present Resource Use and Conservation Efforts. University of Minnesota, Ph.D. Dissertation. 1999. Available    [online] <http://env.erciyes.edu.tr/Kizilirmak/UODissertation/uozesmi3.pdf>. 11 September    2004.

Taylor, Chaloupka, Guindon, and Corbett. "The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Tobacco   Consumption." Tobacco Control in Developing Countries. World Bank. 2001. Available [Online]   <http://www1.worldbank.org/tobacco/tcdc/343TO364.PDF>. 05 October 2004.

Tobacco.org: Tobacco News and Information. Available [online] <http://www.tobacco.org/>. 14   September 2004.