Canadian law threat to burley

The Canadian government has enacted a law that could endanger the entire burley tobacco industry. U.S . tobacco growers need President Obama and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to ensure that the Canadians honor their trade obligations and that other countries do not follow Canada’s lead in banning American blend cigarettes.

The Canadian government’s hypocrisy on trade is startling. Less than a month after Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Washington to lecture President Obama about the dangers of “Buy American” laws, his government passed a “Buy Canada” tobacco ban that violates Canada’s World Trade Organization (WTO) responsibilities.

The legislation was intended to ban candy-flavored tobacco products, a worthy goal that U.S. burley growers share. Unfortunately, C-32 morphed into an overreaching piece of legislation that prohibits the manufacture or sale of blended cigarettes that contain burley tobacco. This outcome is especially troublesome because American blend cigarettes are not candy-flavored in any way. The United States, France and Australia have all recently prohibited candy-flavored cigarettes and cigarillos without endangering jobs in the burley growing industry. But the Canadians decided to listen to uninformed rhetoric instead of hearing the facts.

While American blend cigarettes represent a small share of the Canadian market, they are the dominant type of cigarette in most of the countries around the world. Canada is an outspoken critic of the tobacco industry worldwide. If other nations follow the ill-conceived precedent set in Canada, the men and women who work in the burley industry could very well lose their livelihoods.

At a time when so many sectors of the American economy are suffering, it is wrong for the burley tobacco industry to fall victim to an overreaching foreign law that violates the standards of free and fair trade.

Roger Quarles, president, Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, Lexington



Davis is praised for his ‘no’ vote

On behalf of business owners and operators around the commonwealth, I thank U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis for voting against the flawed health care reform bill passed in the U.S. House on Saturday.

This legislation would increase taxes on a number of small businesses, require government-mandated levels of coverage, make significant cuts to Medicare and create an unneeded government-run health plan to compete with private insurers.

Business leaders believe that health care reform is necessary, but it should focus on lowering costs rather than shifting costs from government health programs to businesses and individuals already struggling to pay health premiums.

Kentucky companies voluntarily make tremendous investments in the health of their employees each year.

As this debate moves forward in Washington, we are encouraged by the leadership of Rep. Davis in recognizing that we must find ways to preserve what is working in our health care system, while improving affordability and access.

Dave Adkisson, President and CEO, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Louisville