U.N. AGENCY TRYING TO FORGE GLOBAL TOBACCO TREATY

Widespread Limits: World Health Organization Pushing For Ad Bans, Higher
Taxes, Tough Measures

GENEVA -- In an atmosphere of unexpected harmony, officials representing
nearly 150 governments laid the groundwork last week for a new global
treaty intended to control tobacco use and stamp out adolescent smoking.

The World Health Organization, which has made the eradication of smoking
the centerpiece of its global public-health strategy, is pushing for a
strong international accord with the goal of completing a treaty by 2003.
The U.N. agency hopes the treaty will result in the banning of advertising
and sports-event sponsorship by multinational tobacco corporations,
increased taxes to make cigarettes more expensive and measures to fight
cigarette smuggling and stem the rise in adolescent smoking.

At the end of the six-day negotiating session, the chair of the talks,
Celso Amorim of Brazil, a tobacco exporter, warned that working out the
details of a treaty in two years might be tougher than it appeared right now.

He noted, for example, that most governments are on record as opposing
cigarette smuggling. But, Amorim said, there was no unanimity on how to
combat the problem of cigarettes illegally moving across borders.

``Some link this with harmonizing tax systems, but others say different
measures are needed,'' he said. Such details will have to be worked out
over the next two years, though anti-smoking groups worried openly whether
consensus in Geneva could withstand lobbying by well-funded tobacco forces.

Tobacco use, according to WHO statistics, kills 4 million people annually
and may kill 10 million a year by 2030.

During the negotiations, nations were almost unanimous in calling for a ban
on tobacco advertising and sponsorships. Countries as diverse as Sri Lanka,
Trinidad, Thailand and Turkey -- a tobacco grower -- supported banning
advertising. The U.S. government was in the middle. ``We stop short of
supporting a complete ban,'' said the top American negotiator, Dr. Thomas
Novotny of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Even though a few countries, including Australia, already bar such
advertising, a blanket ban is likely to raise free-trade concerns. Earlier
this month, the European Court of Justice ruled against the European
Union's planned ban on grounds that it blocked free movement of goods and
services.

Countries have yet to grapple with complicated questions like whether the
treaty would ban indirect advertisements, which include the ``branding'' of
clothing with symbols like a camel, for the well-known cigarette name.
Other contentious issues include cross-border advertising, particularly in
sports events.

Anti-smoking groups said American negotiators had advocated tougher stands
than anticipated. The American Lung Association praised American officials
for backing measures to prevent passive smoking in facilities for children,
as well as in cafes, bars and restaurants. ``Our model is California,''
Novotny, a physician, said. Only California and Vermont have sweeping bans
on public smoking.

A key sticking point for tobacco-growing nations is whether they would
receive any financial assistance while they weaned their economies from the
crop. The United States, along with Canada, proposed bilateral and
voluntary assistance, instead of setting up a global fund with mandatory
assessments, which some poor countries favor.

Anti-tobacco groups are urging a treaty provision that would require
tobacco companies to disclose their political activities, as well as the
amounts they spend on lobbying efforts.

Among the tougher measures to be considered is a plan that the jurisdiction
of the International Court of Justice be expanded to decide whether tobacco
companies have committed crimes against humanity.