How Philip Morris quietly campaigned to block a global anti-smoking treaty

A group of cigarette company executives stood in the lobby of a drab convention centre near New Delhi last November. They were waiting for credentials to enter the World Health Organization's global tobacco treaty conference, one designed to kerb smoking and combat the influence of the cigarette industry.

Treaty officials didn't want them there. But still, among those lined up hoping to get in were executives from Japan Tobacco International and British American Tobacco Plc.

There was a big name missing from the group: Philip Morris International Inc. A Philip Morris representative later told Reuters its employees didn't turn up because the company knew it wasn't welcome.

In fact, executives from the largest publicly traded tobacco firm had flown in from around the world to New Delhi for the anti-tobacco meeting. Unknown to treaty organisers, they were staying at a hotel an hour from the convention centre, working from an operations room there. Philip Morris International would soon be holding secret meetings with delegates from the government of Vietnam and other treaty members.

The object of these clandestine activities: The WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, or FCTC, a treaty aimed at reducing smoking globally. Reuters has found that Philip Morris International is running a secretive campaign to block or weaken treaty provisions that save millions of lives by kerbing tobacco use.

In an internal document, the company says it supported the enactment of the treaty. But Philip Morris has come to view it as a "regulatory runaway train" driven by "anti-tobacco extremists" - a description contained in the document, a 2014 PowerPoint presentation.
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