Trade policy, health and corporate influence:British American Tobacco and China” s accession to the World Trade Organization
Tobacco consumption has a profound impact on health.The China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC) is the largest tobacco concern in the world and China has one of the highest smoking rates.Transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have long sought to gain access to the Chinese market.This paper analyses internal documents of British American Tobacco (BAT), released as a result of litigation in the United States, in order to examine the company”s attempts to influence negotiations over China”s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).The documents demonstrate that BAT attempted to influence these negotiations using a range of mechanisms.These processes contributed to significant concessions on the liberalization of the tobacco market in China, although the failure to break the Chinese state monopoly over the manufacture and distribution of cigarettes has ensured that foreign tobacco companies” share of the Chinese market has remained small.WTO accession has nevertheless led to a profound restructuring of the Chinese tobacco industry in anticipation of foreign competition, which may result in more market-based and internationally oriented Chinese tobacco firms.The paper concludes by evaluating the potential health implications of these developments.
Chris Holde
International Social Policy University of York
国内会议
广州
英文
100-100
2011-08-26（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）