Countering the World Bank Report, Curbing the Epidemic to obstruct the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

In 1999 the World Bank published a major report on economics of tobacco control, Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and the Economic of Tobacco Control that concluded that the costs of tobacco exceed its benefits. The report provided an economic analysis in support of tobacco control and it served as a major technical document in the negotiation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The purpose of this study is to illuminate how the Transnational Tobacco Companies (TTCs) embarked on a global campaign to discredit this report to obstruct the FCTC. The methods used include analysis of tobacco industry documents and other archival documents. The results show that the TTCs hired consultants to campaign against the report, paid academics to provide a critique of the report to be used in lobbying governments, hired consultants to produce “independent” analysis of economic impact of tobacco to show the importance of tobacco to national economics, worked through front groups, particularly the International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA) to raise worldwide awareness of “independent” critique of the report, and highlighted the potential impact of the FCTC on trade. The adoption of the FCTC in May 2003 implies the TTCs were not successful in discrediting the report to obstruct the FCTC, as it has remained the main authoritative document on economics of tobacco control at the global level.