Korean tobacco growers joined with protestors from other countries on Tuesday in Manila, the Philippines, to voice their opposition to measures that are expected to be announced at a tobacco control conference at Seoul, Korea, in November, according to a story in The Korea Herald.
Titled ‘Save Our Farms’ and led by the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA), the protest was said to reflect the views of millions of Asian tobacco growers who fear having their livelihoods destroyed upon the implementation of a series of ‘radical guidelines’, the Korea Tobacco Growers’ Organization (KTGO) said yesterday.
According to the KTGO, the guidelines were drafted in advance of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)’s Conference of the Parties hosted in Seoul in November, where they will be presented.
The ITGA says that these regulations mandate shortened cultivating seasons; the abolishment of all governmental and private subsidies for tobacco farmers; and reductions in both the area planted to tobacco and tobacco production.
“The restriction will cause serious damage to farmers from Korea and other countries that adopt the FCTC,” KTGO chairman Lee Hae-kwon said. “Instead, countries like the US, Argentina, Indonesia and Malawi will take advantage of these
sanctions.”