Source: International Herald-Tribune Contact: http://www.iht.com/ Pubdate: April 8, 1998 Author: Washington Post Editorial Board EXPORTING DISEASE As communism fell in Eastern Europe, the Marlboro Man rode into town. U.S. cigarette makers were in the vanguard, exporting their lethal products as symbols of Western glamour and free-market prosperity. In the former Soviet Union, the three big multinational tobacco firms became, along with energy companies, the biggest investors. When Western advertising began to provoke a nationalist backlash, a new brand appeared. "Peter the Great" cigarettes were designed---according to an inscription on each pack---for those who "believe in the revival of the traditions and grandeur of the Russian lands." They are made by, yes, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The tobacco industry may be on the defensive in America, but it is unashamedly on the march overseas, trying any trick to lure old smokers to new brands in ex-Communist countries and to hook new smokers there as well as in the developing world. The big three---Reynolds, Philip Morris Inc. and British-American Tobacco Co.---want a settlement in large part so that legal challenges in their stagnant home market vould not distract them from growth opportunities in the Third World. But an:agreement that protects some American children from tobacco addiction at the expense of many more children in foreign countries would not be much of a victory. That is why it is important that any tobacco bill include some measures to limit tobacco's predatory behavior overseas. Senator John McCain's proposal---with support from Senators Ron Wyden, Dick Durbin and others---would prohibit the U. S . government from promoting the U.S. tobacco industry abroad. It also would step up U.S. efforts against cigarette smuggling and assist other nations in their anti-smoking efforts, with funding coming from a two cents-a-pack "fee " on overseas sales of U.S. cigarettes. Perhaps most important, it would seek to impose the same restrictions against selling or marketing to children overseas as would apply in America. Some of these provisions are modeled on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a precedent for U.S. regulation of companies' overseas behavior. But it is not clear whether they could apply to foreign subsidiaries, and even in their present forrn they are under attack from some senators and the tobacco industry. The administration should work with Congress in passing the strongest legally defensible provisions possible. President Bill Clinton also should provide more leadership of an internatiqnal coalition against smoking. Tobacco accounted for 2.6 percent. Of the worldwide burden of disease in 1990, according to a recent study by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. By 2020, that figure will grow to 9 percent---more than malnutrition, HIV or any single disease. U.S. firms bear considerable responsibility for that sad statistic.