‘Preparing ourselves to become an international organization’: Thailand Tobacco Monopoly’s regional and global strategies
نویسندگان
چکیده
The Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (TTM) controlled the country's tobacco industry from its formation in the 1940s, until the government dropped restrictions on imported cigarettes in the late 1980s in response to pressure from the United States. The TTM has since competed with transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) in a semi-monopoly market in which TTCs have steadily increased their market share. Coupled with a decline in national smoking prevalence, the result of Thailand's stringent tobacco control agenda, the TTM now accounts for a diminishing share of a contracting market. In response, the monopoly has looked to regional trade liberalisation, and proximity to markets with some of the world's highest smoking rates to expand its operations. Expansion strategies have gone largely unrealised however, and the TTM effectively remains a domestic operation. Using TTM publications, market and trade reports, industry publications, tobacco industry documents and other resources, this paper analyses TTM expansion strategies, and the limited extent to which they have been achieved. This inability to expand its operations has left the monopoly potentially vulnerable to global strategies of its transnational competitors. This article is part of the special issue 'The Emergence of Asian Tobacco Companies: Implications for Global Health Governance'.
منابع مشابه
Political economy of tobacco control in low-income and middle-income countries: lessons from Thailand and Zimbabwe. Global Analysis Project Team.
Crucial to the success of the proposed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will be an understanding of the political and economic context for tobacco control policies, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Policy studies in Thailand and Zimbabwe employed the analytical perspective of political economy and a research strategy that used political mapping, a technique for cha...
متن کاملStakeholder’s Assessment of the Awareness and Effectiveness of Smoke-free Law in Thailand
Background This study reports stakeholders’ ratings, and perceived gaps in World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Article 8 implementation in Thailand viewed against WHO’s Guidelines for Article 8 and to inform action in preparing the 2017 Tobacco Product Control Act. Methods Stakeholder ratings of Guideline provisions of Article 8 on a three-tiered s...
متن کاملThe Legal Strength of International Health Instruments - What It Brings to Global Health Governance?
Public health instruments have been under constant development and renewal for decades. International legal instruments, with their binding character and strength, have a special place in this development. The start of the 21st century saw, in particular, the birth of the first World Health Organization (WHO)-era health treaties – the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and i...
متن کاملAddressing NCDs: Challenges From Industry Market Promotion and Interferences
Addressing the determinants of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is challenged by aggressive market promotion by tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food industries in emerging countries with fast economic development; and interference by these industries in government policies aimed at containing consumption of unhealthy products. This editorial reviews market promotion and industry interference and...
متن کاملGlobal Warming: New Frontier of Research Deep Learning- Age of Distributed Green Smart Microgrid
The exponential increase in carbon-dioxide resulting Global Warming would make the planet earth to become inhabitable in many parts of the world with ensuing mass starvation. The rise of digital technology all over the world fundamentally have changed the lives of humans. The emerging technology of the Internet of Things, IoT, machine learning, data mining, biotechnology, biometric, and deep le...
متن کامل