Tobacco Documents Online

Date: 4 December, 1984 To : Bryan Simpson From: Niki Hauser Skibject: TRIP REPORT - RoME/'FAQ,NoVEMBER' 26-2'9, 1984 Purpose. To maintain established contacts and make new ones, especially with persons who replaced those whom we knew, but who have been trans!ferred. (Two of those transferred are now in high levell positions in their home countries where they will be able to help us). I first called on Mr. Stephan die Mistura, Attache to the Director General of FAQ in order to arrange the modality for me to get an admission baidge to the. FAO Council Meeting. MALAYSIA Asked' Mr. Mohamed Yasin Salleh, Alternate Permanent Representative to present me to his Ambassador and Permanent Representative, who in, turn presented me to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture Mr. Dato Alwi Jantan. I explained our activity in Rome and what our objectives are. He would very much like to hear our presentation. We should contact him in Kuala Lumpur and he will make the arrangements for us to see the Minister. I gave him the Malaysian Economic. Ir,lpact booklet which seemed to interest him very much, he had not seen it before.

2 ~ TURKEY Had dinner with Ambassador Varol Ozakogak and Hasim C7g'ut of Turkey. The Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Health are old friends of Mr. (5gut, so the time to go to Turkey is indeed ripe and should be done soon, especially in view of the frequent and sudden changes of persons in decision-making jobs. The procedure strongly recommended by the Ambassador and! Mr.OgUt would be as follows: 1) Both would be glad'lto review our presentation. I am suree that this would be valuable because Ogut, being on friendly terms with both Ministers, could give us good advice regarding approach and content of our presentation. 2) As a second step, the Ambassador would ask the foreign office to arrange our visit first with the Minister of Agriculture followed by a visit to the Minister of'Health.. Concomitantly, Mr. OgUt would write to his friends (t•Sinisters of Agriculture and Health) that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wouldlask them to receive us.. 3), After our presentations to the Ministries of Agriculture and Hiealth, both would recommend to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that we make our presentation to the Turkish Ambassador in Geneva,. He is nationally and internationally a highly respected' person, having previously been Minister of Foreign Affairs. I submit that this opening merits the urgent attention of Infotab and the members~ of the Board, so that we receive the green light to go ahead.

3 FAO Called on Mrs. Paula Ma!rongiu-Fbrtucci - Senior Economist Commodity Divisiony FAO who has taken over from Mrs. Klein. I gave her copies of the Eoonomic Impact Studies from Zimbabwe, Malaysia,, India, and Argentina; the "Tobacco.: Generator of Wealth"' brochure and one copy of the BI study on Cash Crop Contributions to the Kenyan Economy. Mrs. Marongiu advisedl that.FAO's comrnittment.to WH0 to engage inicountry studies onithe Economic Significance of Tobacco is dormant because of lack of funds and man-power. However, WHO has insisted that CERES publishes an article composed by WHO as a quasi answer to last year"s article "'Tobaccol'is too profitable to curb growing". It will appear in the September-October issu~e which is late. She will send me an advanced copy. FAO is engiaged ini a project which will project the supply, demand trade of several commodities~ up to 19190 , amongi them tobacco. I told her that thie industry would,be glad to assist. She was happy to hear, this because she said that some time ago she called on the Tobacco Institute andwas given to understand that she was not a welcome guest. ARGEDIT INA The Ambassadior of Argentina, Guillermo E. Gonzalez presented me to Mr. Norberto H:. Pasini. He is the man re.sponsiblle for tobacco in Argentina, and thus very interested, in our presentation. He would immediately arrange for our presentation to be made to him and his Minister. He strongly advises that w& include in the presentation the, heads of the Tobacco Growers Association who carry great weight. (He, might have meant the two Argentinian Growers' Associations, because of language problems, I ami not sure whether I understood'him correctly).

He stressed that his interest was based' on the great foreign currency and tax contribution tobacco makes to th~e economy and of the benefits to small farmers. Ambassador Gonzalez would',be glad to review our presentation,. Called on Ingi. Diego White, formerly Alternate Permanent Representative of Argentina now with FAO on a temporary basis. He suggested that I call on his gpod friend the Argentine Agricultural Attache' in Brussels Mr. Guillermo Nielsen. He is influential at the Ministry of' Agriculture and could give us valuable advice for our presentation in Buenos Aires. We might rehearse it on him. BRAZIL I called bn Mr. Henriqpe da Silveira Pinto, Alternate Permanent Representative of Brazil. He will present me to the new Ambassador who will arrive on December 15 in Rome to take over from Minister Freitas who died last spring. I gave him the BI study on Cash Crops in Brazil and the article on "Re-Forestation efforts carriedlout by the tobacco industry" in his country. MEXICO I met Mr. Jose Ramon Lopez Portillo, Delegate to the Council, Minister and Permanent Representative of Mexico to FAO. He knew from Dr. Carlos Vidali of our activities. Regarding our intention to make a presentation to the Minister of Agriculture in Mexico he was pleased to tell me that Dr. Vidali was now Director Generall in the "Economia A~gricola, Ministry of Agricultura y Recursos Hidraulicos"' the key department interested in our efforts to defend the tobacco leaf and the industry. We should therefore contact himy and'he will be the best man to arrange our presentation. Due to the good relations we developed with Dr. Vidali I am confident that in his present position he will ensure that our presentation will be made under the most favourable circumstances.

Here again, I would'suggest to act soon, before Dr. Vidali moves somewhere else. On mylaist visit to Rome in June he mentioned that he was aiming to join the private sector. TANZANIA I had a discussion with Mr. Josephi Sil!van Mtenga, Minister Counsellor and Representative to FAO of Tanzania. He told me that Mr. Machunda, Minister of Agriculture to whom Peter Mercer made the presentation,, was truly impressed and appreciated very much the call and! the content of the presentation. CAMEROO'fI Met Mr. A.G. Ngongi Namanga, Permanent Representative of Cameroon and Chairman of' the Asian group. He will change over to the World Food Programune but will remainlin Rome, and in the future will be able to present me to the Permanent Representatives of Tunisia and Morocco;. GREECE Met with the Permanent Representative Mr. Nicolas Saltas who would be gilad to review our presentation prior to our going to. Athens any time we were ready to do so. I'NDONE'S IA Met with Mr. A. Kobi Sasradipoera, Representative of Indonesia to the Council and former Ambassador to FAO. He is presently Director to the Bureau, of ForeigniCooporation in the Ministry of Agriculture iniJakarta. Mr. Suharyo Husen who is presently the Alternate Permanent Representative of Indonesiai to FAO advised me that Mr. Sasradipoera would"be a good contact in the Ministry.

6 SUMM,AFtY In summary, favourable openings have developed for calls on agricultural tliinisters in three major and one less importantt tobacco growing countries: Argentina, Mexice, Turkey and Malaysia. In order not to lose the interest of the personalities contacted, I suggest that the presentations in these countries shouldi be prepared and made during, the first four months of'. 19'85 .. BDU/FiF 041'L'84