International issues in the supply of tobacco: recent changes and implications for alcohol

This paper reviews international issues in the supply of tobacco and tobacco products, including trade liberalization and globalization. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the theoretical foundations for trade and trade restrictions. This is followed by a description of the treatment of tobacco and tobacco products in recent multi‐lateral, regional and bilateral trade agreements, as well as a short discussion of the recent globalization of the tobacco industry. Included in this description is a review of the empirical evidence on the impact of trade liberalization on tobacco use. The implications of two recently proposed international agreements ‐ the Multilateral Agreement on Investments and the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control ‐ are then discussed. The paper concludes by summarizing the theoretical and empirical evidence that shows clearly that trade liberalization has significantly increased tobacco use, particularly in low and middle‐income countries, and follows this with a discussion of the lessons learned from tobacco for controlling alcohol supply.