GOI OBJECTS TO U.S. TOBACCO LEGISLATION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 002409 SIPDIS SINGAPORE FOR SUSAN BAKER SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT PASS TO USTR SCHWAB DEPT FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/RSP, EB/TPP, EB/TPP/BTA COMMERCE FOR SBERLINGUETTE USTR FOR DKATZ, RBAE TREASURY FOR IA-BAUKOL E.O. 12598: N/A TAGS: BEXP EINV ECON ID SUBJECT: GOI OBJECTS TO U.S. TOBACCO LEGISLATION ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On August 31, Embassy received official correspondence from Government of Indonesia (GOI) Minister of Trade Mari Pangestu addressed to United States Trade Representative (USTR) Susan C. Schwab. The letter details GOI objections to draft tobacco control legislation under consideration by the U.S. Congress. Pangestu argues that the legislation, if enacted, would constitute a violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements. The full text of the letter is included below. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Begin text: Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia Our Ref: 1093/M-DAG/8/2007 Jakarta, 28 Augustus 2007 H.E. Ambassador Susan C. Schwab United States Trade Representative Washington, D.C. United States of America Re: The "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act" (S.625) Dear Ambassador Schwab, It was a pleasure meeting with you a few months ago in Washington D.C, in which I had enjoyed discussing with you about the increasingly strong relationship between our two countries in trade and investment sectors. I would like to take this opportunity, to thank you again for the excellent arrangements made during my visit to Washington, D.C. I am writing to you to raise my Government's concern over an introduction of a draft legislation entitled the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act" (S.625),which currently being considered in the U.S. Congress. This draft Act contains a provision, which, if enacted as currently drafted, will unjustifiably discriminate against Indonesia's cigarette exports in favor of competing, domestically produced U.S. cigarette products. We understand that Senator Kennedy, who has been supportive of addressing our concerns with appropriate legislative language, has written to you about this matter. Specifically, the "special rule for cigarettes" in section 907 of the legislation states that, beginning 3 months after the date of enactment: (a) In General. (1) SPECIAL RULE FOR CIGARETTES. A cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter, or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke. The United States does not produce clove cigarettes at all, Indonesia produces cigarettes containing cloves and over 99% of the clove cigarettes Imported into the United states come from Indonesia, That entire volume of imports would be prohibited under section 907 of the proposed bill. In direct contrast, cigarettes containing menthol sold in the U.S. are almost exclusively produced In the United States as imports of menthol cigarettes are negligible. However, menthol cigarettes are explicitly excluded front the prohibition in section 907. The fact that Section 907 would prohibit the importation and sale of clove cigarettes from Indonesia while arbitrarily permitting domestic production and sale of menthol cigarettes raises serious concerns about the consistency of this proposed provision with the United States' obligations under the agreements of the World Trade Organization, In particular, the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) obligates the United States to ensure that, in respect of its technical regulations, products imported from the territory of any WTO Member shall be accorded treatment no less favorable than that accorded to domestic like products and to like products originating In any other country. The Agreement also obligates the United States to ensure that its technical regulations JAKARTA 00002409 002 OF 002 are not more trade-restrictive than necessary, thereby creating unnecessary obstacles to International trade. In that regard, the TST Agreement requires that the United States take account of SIPDIS scientific and technical information, as well as the special development and trade needs of developing country Members, such as Indonesia. Similar obligations exist under the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. A stated purpose of the standards in the proposed U.S. legislation is to restrict advertising promotional practices most likely to entice youth into tobacco use, while affording ample opportunity to market tobacco products to adults. Like menthol cigarettes (and unlike other flavored cigarettes),clove cigarettes are not targeted at youth smokers, Clove cigarettes are estimated to account for only 0.1% of the total number of cigarettes consumed in the United States and only approximately 0.8% of youth smokers have smoked clove cigarettes and that number of youths is declining based on recent studies. Menthol cigarettes, on the other hand, are estimated to account for approximately 26% of the cigarettes consumed in the United States and approximately 29.7% of youth smokers smoke menthol cigarettes. Moreover, there is no scientifically supportable evidence or risk assessment establishing specific human health risks associated with clove cigarettes that would justify banning those cigarettes while continuing to permit the sale of menthol cigarettes. These facts are compelling. Imports of Indonesia's clove cigarettes are prohibited for no reason other than they contain it natural herbal additive, while U.S. cigarettes containing menthol - a processed herbal additive - are explicitly exempted from the prohibition. The Government of Indonesia firmly believes that such discriminatory treatment is inconsistent with the United States' International obligations and, if enacted, will have a significant adverse effect on Indonesian trade. The Government of Indonesia therefore respectfully asks that you carefully consider our concerns and, in the Interest of our positive trade relationship, ensure that both the spirit and the requirements of the WTO agreements are observed. Further, absent elimination o of the prohibition on imports of clove cigarettes, pursuant to Article 2.5 of the TST Agreement and Article 5.8 of the SPS Agreement, we ask the United States to explain how that prohibition is justified. As you are aware, Indonesia has expressed concern over the Bill at previous meetings of the Indonesia-US Trade and Investment Council. We trust that your government would understand the difficulties we arc faced with, as well as the severity and the urgency of this matter to our people whose livelihood very much depends on the existence of the cigarettes industry. We would be very appreciative of your attention to this matter and would welcome the opportunity to discuss it further with you, at your convenience. We look forward to an opportunity in building and strengthening the robust relationship between our two countries. Thank you, Yours sincerely, Mari Elka Pangestu End text. HUME