Balancing interests in free trade and health: how the WHO's framework convention on tobacco control can withstand WTO scrutiny.

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law, January, 2002 by Eckhardt, Joseph N.

I. INTRODUCTION

Tobacco is one of the most widely consumed products in the world, and yet it has an extremely negative impact on human health. Worldwide, one in three adults, or approximately 1.1 billion people, smoke or consume other tobacco products, and between 82,000 and 99,000 young people take up smoking every day. (1) By the year 2020, it is projected that more people will die from tobacco-related diseases than from any other single disease. (2) In response to this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has established an ambitious goal: generate a treaty regime to reduce tobacco consumption. (3) In 1999, the WHO's legislative body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), unanimously passed an unprecedented resolution to convene negotiations for the development...

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