The Business Association of Georgia (BAG) was established in 2009, with a stated mission of improving the business environment in Georgia by “uniting the members, in close cooperation with the authorities, international and local partners”.¹

As of 2022, members of BAG include around 100 holding companies, that represent over 600 businesses of varying sizes.¹

Relationship with the tobacco industry

Membership

Philip Morris Georgia, a subsidy of Philip Morris International (PMI), became a member of BAG in 2017.²

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) became a member in 2021.²³

COVID-19 donation

In 2020, Philip Morris Georgia made a donation of GEL 100,000 (UK£35,500) to a COVID-19 support fund established by BAG.⁴

• See the COVID-19 page for information on tobacco industry corporate social responsibility and targeted donations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Activities

Lobbying to oppose regulations on heated tobacco products

A ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship was introduced in Georgia in May 2018, and an outdoor display ban in September 2018.⁵

In September 2018, BAG submitted a legislative proposal to the Healthcare Committee of the Parliament requesting that heated tobacco products (HTPs) and other newer nicotine and tobacco products be subject to fewer regulations than conventional tobacco products.⁶⁷ BAG also submitted the proposal to the Office of Business Ombudsman of Georgia.⁷⁵ The Ombudsman’s office, which reportedly often has meetings and consultations with tobacco industry representatives,⁵ subsequently wrote a letter to Parliament supporting the proposal.⁸ However, the proposal was ultimately dismissed by Parliament.⁵⁶

In January 2020, BAG submitted another legislative proposal requesting fewer regulations for HTPs.⁵⁹¹⁰ During this time, BAG also published media reports which cited PMI’s HTP IQOS, as the reason for the request being made.¹¹

The proposal stated:

“The essence of our proposal is that new tobacco products and heating tobacco, devices and accessories intended for their consumption should not be subject to the prohibitions provided by the current legislation relating to Internet and/or mail order retailing, direct personal communications, and informational materials”[translation].¹²

The proposal was again dismissed by Parliament in February 2020.⁵

In July 2020, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised the marketing of IQOS,¹³ Legal Director of BAG, Nika Nanuashvili,¹⁴ criticised the Parliament of Georgia’s decisions not to accept BAG’s previous legislative proposals.¹⁵

In 2021, Nanuashvili contributed to a media report in which he echoed previous statements around product regulation. He also commented that smuggling rates of traditional tobacco products are high, citing the high cost of tobacco as the cause.¹⁶

Plain packaging

Georgia mandated a law to introduce plain packaging to tobacco products, including HTPs, in May 2017. However, its implementation has been postponed on several occasions,¹⁷ with regulations now due to enter into force in 2024.¹⁸

In 2021 BAG submitted another legislative proposal regarding regulations for newer products.¹⁹ Adding to previous submissions, this proposal argued against the introduction of plain packaging for HTPs. It also recommended that, for all tobacco products, new packaging regulations be postponed to 2025, and stated “Standardized packaging has failed in all markets where it has been implemented and failed to achieve its intended goals”[translation].²⁰

The proposal also stated:

“since 2017, the reform of the legislation regulating tobacco products began in the country, and on this painful path, the most difficult, radical regulations were selected… Georgia’s legislation, which is significantly stricter than EU countries, especially in terms of marketing and standardized packaging, will inevitably lead to further narrowing of organized businesses in the relevant market and indirect encouragement of illegal imports”[translation].²⁰

However, the proposal was again refused by Parliament.²¹

After rejection of the proposal, Nanuashvili stated in a media report that plain packaging would have a negative impact on the sale of lesser-known brands and argued that plain packaging could result in an increase in illicit trade.²²

See also Industry Arguments Against Plain Packaging

Relevant Link

• Business Association of Georgia website

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Third party technique
• A list of pages in the Georgia category

References

The post Business Association of Georgia appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Healthy Initiatives, based in Ukraine, describes itself as a “non-profit organization aimed at promoting and strengthening public health and well-being”.

Its website states “We analyze and review key risk-factors, such as tobacco, alcohol, and passive lifestyles, then recommend mitigation strategies to effect positive change”.¹

Healthy Initiatives was registered as a public organisation in November 2019. Nataliia Toropova and Tetyana Yuznova are listed as the founders.²⁷

Staff

As well as being a founding member, Nataliia Toropova is listed as the Head of Healthy Initiatives on the organisation’s website.¹

Before establishing Healthy Initiatives, Toropova worked as a Programme Manager for the World Health Organization (WHO) between 2010 and 2019. Part of this role included providing “technical assistance to the Russian Health Ministry in drafting, analyzing and promoting the adoption of the strong tobacco-control legislation”.²⁸ Prior to this, Toropova worked as an Advocacy Coordinator at Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids in Eastern Europe.

No other staff members are listed on the Healthy Initiatives website.¹

Links to the tobacco industry

Healthy Initiatives receives funding from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) to carry out research projects relating to tobacco use and public opinion on tobacco harm reduction.²⁹ As of 2021, Philip Morris International (PMI) remains the sole funder of FSFW.³⁰

The first FSFW grant was approved shortly after the establishment of Healthy Initiatives, in January 2020.³¹ Two further FSFW grants have subsequently been awarded, altogether providing funding to Healthy Initiatives from 2020-2024.³²³³

Head of Healthy Initiatives, Nataliia Toropova, has also taken part in events alongside FSFW and other FSFW funded organisations, including Knowledge-Action-Change.³⁴³⁵

Supporting fewer restrictions for newer nicotine and tobacco products

Healthy Initiatives has regularly vocalised its support for what it refers to as a ‘harm reduction strategy’ in tobacco control.³⁶

Country profiles

Outputs produced by Healthy Initiatives as part of its FSFW funded projects, have included detailed country profiles on the use, prevalence, market size and policy surrounding tobacco use in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.³⁷

Recommendations listed in these reports consistently note a need to use harm reduction strategies in tobacco control. Recommendations also include a need for newer nicotine and tobacco products, including heated tobacco products, to be regulated differently from traditional tobacco products, particularly in terms of the taxation of these products.

For example, the Georgia country report notes “The existing taxation system of tobacco products encourages downward substitution instead of stopping smoking or switching to HRPs [harm reduction products]. The government should differentiate HRPs from traditional cigarettes and fine tobacco by imposing stricter regulations and higher excise duties on the latter. In addition, following the FDA’s recent decision, NCDC should stop spreading misconceptions about HTPs, specifically IQOS.”³⁸

IQOS is a heated tobacco product produced by Philip Morris International.

Similarly, the Ukraine country report states “The cost of a dose of nicotine in different products should be inversely proportional to the product’s overall harmfulness”.³⁹

The report also states “a smoking cessation service should offer alternatives to those who for some reason cannot or do not want to quit their own nicotine addiction, to satisfy needs for nicotine that are less harmful for their health…”.³⁹

Webinar

In November 2022, Healthy Initiatives hosted a webinar with journalists in Ukraine titled ‘Comprehensive Tobacco Control: Why Lies and Myths Make It Stuck, and What Can Help Adult Chain Smokers Quit and Gain 10 Years of Life’.⁴⁰

The research presented suggested that smoking prevalence in Ukraine was decreasing very slowly, and that “the effectiveness of traditional tobacco control tools is ineffective”.

The report also noted that “there is a lack of public understanding and awareness of the harm caused by tar and other substances emitted while smoking combustible cigarettes, while nicotine is viewed as the biggest enemy causing cancer. This deceptive thought on equalizing the health harm caused by smoking combustible cigarettes and the one from using electronic cigarettes is dangerously misleading, demotivating adult chain smokers from switching to harm-reduction products and gaining ten years of life”.

Links to FSFW funded Knowledge-Action-Change

The Global Forum on Nicotine

The Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) is an annual conference organised by Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC); another organisation funded by the Foundation for a Smoke Free World (FSFW). It regularly hosts tobacco industry speakers and panellists.

Head of Healthy Initiatives, Nataliia Toropova took part in a panel discussion at the GFN 2021, during which she expressed the need to “make harm reduction the key of tobacco control”.⁴¹

Harm reduction roadshow

In June 2022, Healthy Initiatives organised a roadshow alongside KAC, titled ‘Integrating harm reduction into tobacco control in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: how to help people in the region to quit’, which took place in Warsaw. ³⁴

Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report

Healthy Initiatives has also supported KAC’s Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) project which “maps the global, regional and national availability and use of safer nicotine products (SNP), the regulatory responses to these products, and the public health potential of tobacco harm reduction.”⁴²

In 2021 the GSTHR project launched a report titled ‘Fighting the Last War: The WHO and International Tobacco Control’. This argued that current implementation of the FCTC had been a global public health failure, and that harm reduction for tobacco offered an opportunity for change.⁴³ Toropova took part in the online conference at which the report was presented alongside Derek Yach, former President of FSFW, and Gerry Stimson, Founder of KAC.³⁵ She was also quoted in media reports published by GSTHR associated with this project.⁴³

New Approaches Summit

In September 2022 and 2023, Toropova co-chaired a conference called ‘New Approaches’, held at the Harvard Club of New York City, in the same week as the United Nations General Assembly.⁴⁴⁴⁵

Conference sessions largely focussed to the role of newer nicotine products in harm reduction, and referred to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).⁴⁴⁴⁵⁴⁶

Speakers have included previous employees and consultants of Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and other tobacco companies, and FSFW grantees.⁴⁴⁴⁵

• See the TobaccoTactics long read on how the tobacco industry has appropriated the UN SDGs in order to promote its newer products, and claim a position as a legitimate stakeholder in matters of global development.

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World
• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World Grantees
• A list of pages in the Ukraine category
• The Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN)
• Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC)

References

The post Healthy Initiatives appeared first on TobaccoTactics.