Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Format of Original
8 p.
Publication Date
9-2016
Publisher
Elsevier
Source Publication
Social Science and Medicine
Source ISSN
0277-9536
Original Item ID
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.026; PubMed Central: PMC4994523
Abstract
The tobacco industry has developed an extensive array of strategies and arguments to prevent or weaken government regulation. These strategies and arguments are well documented at the domestic level. However, there remains a need to examine how these arguments are reflected in the challenges waged by governments within the World Trade Organization (WTO). Decisions made at the WTO have the potential to shape how countries govern. Our analysis was conducted on two novel tobacco control measures: tobacco additives bans (Canada, United States and Brazil) and plain, standardized packaging of tobacco products (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, EU and UK). We analyzed WTO documents (i.e. meeting minutes and submissions) (n = 62) in order to identify patterns of argumentation and compare these patterns with well-documented industry arguments. The pattern of these arguments reveal that despite the unique institutional structure of the WTO, country representatives opposing novel tobacco control measures use the same non-technical arguments as those that the tobacco industry continues to use to oppose these measures at the domestic level.
Recommended Citation
Lencucha, Raphael; Drope, Jeffrey; and Labonte, Ronald, "Short-Interval Cortical Inhibition and Rhetoric and the Law, Or the Law of Rhetoric: How Countries Oppose Novel Tobacco Control Measures at The World Trade Organization" (2016). Political Science Faculty Research and Publications. 31.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/polisci_fac/31
Comments
Accepted version. Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 164 (September 2016): 100-107. DOI. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Used with permission.