THAILAND
Anti-smoking activists say a bill approved by the Thai cabinet last December to set up a new tobacco authority has loopholes that could ease cigarette restrictions, aiding transnational tobacco firms aiming to make products in Thailand through their Thai nominees.
The bill highlights the benefits of turning the current Thailand Tobacco Monopoly from a state enterprise under the finance ministry into the Tobacco Authority of Thailand, a juristic entity with the flexibility to conduct transactions.
Dr. Hatai Chitanondh, president of the Thailand Health Promotion Institute (THPI), said that the bill is a cause for concern as it might allow transnational tobacco firms to gain control of firms or public companies allowed under the legislation and that the bill should be reviewed to plug loopholes that could endanger public health. According to Dr. Hatai, the bill permits companies or public companies producing tobacco to be registered and transnational tobacco giants could buy into them or manipulate their policies through proxy shareholders. He also said that these companies would also be able to produce a wide range of tobacco products, in a potential threat to Thailand’s tobacco controls.
Wasin Pipatthanachat, a lawyer working with the Thailand Health Promotion Institute, explained that under this new bill foreigners are allowed to hold at most 49% of the shares in a company or a public firm producing tobacco. The loophole here would be that while on paper, foreigners might be kept from holding a majority stake, in practice no one can guarantee that Thai shareholders are not simply nominees of the foreign firms, he said.