Jeffrey Drope

Exposing and Addressing Tobacco Industry Conduct in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries

The tobacco industrys future depends on increasing tobacco use in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), which face a growing burden of tobacco-related disease, yet have potential to prevent full-scale escalation of this epidemic. To drive up sales the industry markets its products heavily, deliberately targeting non-smokers and keeps prices low until smoking and local economies are sufficiently established to drive prices and profits up. The industry systematically flaunts existing tobacco control legislation and works aggressively to prevent future policies using its resource advantage to present highly misleading economic arguments, rebrand political activities as corporate social responsibility, and establish and use third parties to make its arguments more palatable. Increasingly it is using domestic litigation and international arbitration to bully LMICs from implementing effective policies and hijacking the problem of tobacco smuggling for policy gain, attempting to put itself in control of an illegal trade in which there is overwhelming historical evidence of its complicity. Progress will not be realised until tobacco industry interference is actively addressed as outlined in Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Exemplar LMICs show this action can be achieved and indicate that exposing tobacco industry misconduct is an essential first step.

Purchasing Protection? The Effect of Political Spending on U.S. Trade Policy

The issue of whether or not money influences policymaking has been widely debated in American politics. While a direct link between money and policy outcomes has proven difficult to make, bureaucratic decisions on trade protection provide an opportunity to link politically active firms and industries to policy outcomes. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Department of Commerce both play a major role in making trade policy by administering several important trade laws, including the U.S. antidumping law. Firms can petition the ITC and Commerce for protection from foreign firms that are alleged to engage in the unfair practice of dumping their goods on the U.S. market. Evidence suggests, however, that firms use this law as a means of seeking protection from foreign competition, even when that competition is fair. As the stakes are high for both domestic and foreign firms, there is the potential for political influence. Focusing on lobbying activities and campaign contributions, we analyze the influence of domestic and foreign monies on bureaucratic decisionmaking on trade policy.

Tobacco control in Africa : people, politics and policies

The harmful effects of tobacco use pose an imminent threat to the health of African people. As the tobacco epidemic shows signs of waning in some northern countries, a combination of factors such as low prevalence rates, young and burgeoning populations, growing disposable incomes, and aggressive and unscrupulous advertising by multi-national tobacco companies threatens to create a massive tobacco-related burden of disease in Africa, which will add grimly to existing public health challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that tobacco kills approximately 5.4 million people annually, which is more than HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis. More than half of these tobacco-related deaths are now in developing countries. Fortunately, in recent years, proponents of tobacco control have increased their efforts in Africa and there is now some notable progress in policy reform. However, a great deal of work remains. Moreover, more country-specific or locally-relevant research in Africa and across developing countries is necessary to complement these nascent efforts. While the research must be theoretical and empirical, it must also be highly relevant, accessible and useable by advocates of policy change.

Collective Action, Pluralism, and the Legitimacy Tariff: Corporate Activity or Inactivity in Politics

Despite the fact that domestic and foreign corporations, along with trade associations, are some of the most politically active groups in the United States, earlier research has identified a substantial number of firms that are politically inactive. Using fresh data collected from the 2000 election cycle for the Fortune 1000 and the Forbes top foreign investors, we examine business soft money, lobbying expenditures, as well as PAC contributions, in exploring economic, institutional, and political factors that might explain the choice of political activity or inactivity. This article goes beyond earlier research in several ways. Previous research has focused on PAC contributions rather than a fuller range of activities, and it has not included association political activity in the analysis of firm-level behavior. Also, the influence of other actors in the political system, notably environmental and citizen groups, has not been systematically examined. Theoretically, these data allow us to examine the countervailing power thesis, the institutionalists’ arguments about the nature of foreign business behavior, and the unexplored collective action questions that business associational activity poses—are firm and associational activities complements or substitutes?

Evolving Norms at the Intersection of Health and Trade

There has been growing tension at the intersection of health and economic policy making as global governance has increased across sectors. This tension has been particularly evident between tobacco control and trade policy, as the international norms that frame them -- particularly the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the World Trade Organization (WTO) -- have continued to institutionalize. Using five case studies of major tobacco-related trade disputes from the principal multilateral system of trade governance -- the WTO/General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade -- we trace the evolution of these interacting norms over nearly twenty-five years. Our analytic framework focuses on the actors that advance, defend, and challenge these norms. We find that an increasingly broad network, which includes governments, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and members of the epistemic community, is playing a more active role in seeking to resolve these tensions. Moreover, key economic actors are beginning to incorporate health more actively into their messaging and activities. We also demonstrate that the most recent resonant messages reflect a more nuanced integration of the two norms. The tobacco control example has direct relevance to related policy areas, including environment, safety, access to medicines, diet, and alcohol.

Investment incentives and the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: evidence from Zambia

Purpose Policy misalignment across different sectors of government serves as one of the pivotal barriers to WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) implementation. This paper examines the logic used by government officials to justify investment incentives to increase tobacco processing and manufacturing in the context of FCTC implementation in Zambia. Methods We conducted qualitative semistructured interviews with key informants from government, civil society and intergovernmental economic organisations (n=23). We supplemented the interview data with an analysis of public documents pertaining to the policy of economic development in Zambia. Results We found gross misalignments between the policies of the economic sector and efforts to implement the provisions of the FCTC. Our interviews uncovered the rationale used by officials in the economic sector to justify providing economic incentives to bolster tobacco processing and manufacturing in Zambia: (1) tobacco is not consumed by Zambians/tobacco is an export commodity, (2) economic benefits outweigh health costs and (3) tobacco consumption is a personal choice. Conclusions Much of the struggle Zambia has experienced in implementing the FCTC can be attributed to misalignments between the economic and health sectors. Zambias development agenda seeks to bolster agricultural processing and manufacturing. Tobacco control proponents must recognise and work within this context in order to foster productive strategies with those working on tobacco supply issues. These findings are broadly applicable to the global context. It is important that the Ministry of Health monitors the tobacco policy of and engages with these sectors to find ways of harmonising FCTC implementation.

The Political Economy of Nontariff Trade Barriers in Emerging Economies

This article examines the counterpoint to recent economic reform programs: policies that potentially defy the reform process. Policy “reversal” is particularly evident in the area of trade liberalization where nations reduced tariffs while simultaneously introducing nontariff barriers (NTB), particularly the widespread antidumping (AD) measure. This research seeks to identify the determinants of these new “postliberalization” trade policies by combining dominant interest group approaches with more state-centered explanations in an examination of two vigorous NTB users, South Africa and Mexico. The results of nested probit analyses suggest that private interests dominate the process in Mexico, while both interests and the states overall strategic development objectives shape trade policy outcomes in South Africa.

Global tobacco control and economic norms: an analysis of normative commitments in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia

Tobacco control norms have gained momentum over the past decade. To date 43 of 47 Sub-Saharan African countries are party to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The near universal adoption of the FCTC illustrates the increasing strength of these norms, although the level of commitment to implement the provisions varies widely. However, tobacco control is enmeshed in a web of international norms that has bearing on how governments implement and strengthen tobacco control measures. Given that economic arguments in favor of tobacco production remain a prominent barrier to tobacco control efforts, there is a continued need to examine how economic sectors frame and mobilize their policy commitments to tobacco production. This study explores the proposition that divergence of international norms fosters policy divergence within governments. This study was conducted in three African countries: Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia. These countries represent a continuum of tobacco control policy, whereby Kenya is one of the most advanced countries in Africa in this respect, whereas Malawi is one of the few countries that is not a party to the FCTC and has implemented few measures. We conducted 55 key informant interviews (Zambia = 23; Kenya = 17; Malawi = 15). Data analysis involved deductive coding of interview transcripts and notes to identify reference to international norms (i.e. commitments, agreements, institutions), coupled with an inductive analysis that sought to interpret the meaning participants ascribe to these norms. Our analysis suggests that commitments to tobacco control have yet to penetrate non-health sectors, who perceive tobacco control as largely in conflict with international economic norms. The reasons for this perceived conflict seems to include: (1) an entrenched and narrow conceptualization of economic development norms, (2) the power of economic interests to shape policy discourses, and (3) a structural divide between sectors in the form of bureaucratic silos.

Socio-economic and demographics determinants of tobacco use in Kenya: findings from the kenya demographic and health survey 2014

Introduction Every year, more than 6,000 Kenyans die of tobacco related diseases (79 men and 37 women die per week), while more than 220,000 children and more than 2,737,000 adults continue to use tobacco each day. Some suggest that these numbers will rise without concerted efforts to strengthen the implementation of tobacco control measures. To date, there remains much to be learned about what contributes to tobacco consumption in Kenya. This study analyses the socio-economic and demographic determinants of tobacco use in Kenya. Methods To analyze the determinants of tobacco use in Kenya, this study uses the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. A logistic regression is used to estimate the probability of an individual smoking, given a set of socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Results Results suggest that the overall smoking and smokeless prevalence rate is 17.3% and 3.10% respectively among men. Women have low rates with smoking and smokeless prevalence standing at 0.18% and 0.93% respectively. However, for both genders, tobacco use is influenced by age, marital status, residence, region, educational status and gender. Conclusion Socio-economic, demographic and geographic disparities on tobacco use should be explored in order to ensure prudent allocation of resources used for tobacco control initiatives. Allocation of resources for tobacco control including monitoring advertisements, sales to underage persons and general distribution of human resource for tobacco control should be based on socio-economic and demographic dynamics.

Economic (In)Security and Gender Differences in Trade Policy Attitudes

Over time and across countries, researchers have noted frequent and mostly unexplained gender differences in the levels of support for policies of free or freer trade: women tend to be less favorable toward policies of liberalizing trade than men. Using an economic security explanation based principally on a mobile factors approach, we find that it is not women generally who are more negative toward trade but particularly economically vulnerable women ??? i.e. women from the scarce labor factor. We utilize recent survey data on individuals??? attitudes toward different facets of trade and its effects across three disparate regions to examine this phenomenon empirically. An economic security approach helps to explain the marked differences in attitudes toward trade among lower- and higher-skilled females in developing and developed countries.