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  • The Guardian

    How diplomatic missions became entangled with the tobacco industry

    British high commission in Malaysia and US foreign aid organizations funded the Ideas thinktank as it argued against plain packaging and tobacco taxesRevealed: the free-market groups helping the tobacco industryFree-market groups and the tobacco industry – full database
    by Jessica Glenza in New York Jan 24, 2019 4 minutes
    Mary Assunta: ‘Ideas jumped into tobacco control only recently and was making policy statements that echoed the tobacco industry’s position.’ Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

    The British high commission in Malaysia gave tens of thousands of pounds to a local thinktank while it argued against tobacco controls already enacted in the UK. At the same time it was funded by the British foreign office, the thinktank received substantial funding from three multinational tobacco companies.

    The conduct of the high commission raises questions about whether diplomats went against guidelines to “limit interactions” with the tobacco industry, following previous criticism of diplomatic support for the tobacco industry abroad.

    British and American diplomatic missions funded the thinktank, the Kuala Lumpur-based Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), while it argued against tobacco taxes and plain packaging. The UK enacted plain packaging in 2014.

    The news follows a Guardian analysis of free-market thinktanks

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