The World Health Organisation (WHO) urged Southeast Asian nations to exempt tobacco from their free trade pact, warning that liberalising the trade would incur major health and economic costs.

Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for Western Pacific, said the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) must ensure that measures to curb tobacco use were not undermined by obligations under the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta).

Tobacco kills five million people each year worldwide and this will double to 10 million by 2030 if nothing is done, he said.

The economic costs due to productivity loss were also staggering, with the World Bank estimating that tobacco use resulted in a global net loss of RM760 billion each year, he said.

"Globalising and liberalising tobacco trade is tantamount to accelerating the export and import of dreadful health and economic risks," Omi said at the start of a two-day Asean health officials' meeting.

'Tobacco not any consumer item'

He urged the region to "expand the Afta exemption to include tobacco and tobacco products" so that barriers can be imposed to curb trade.

"Tobacco should not be treated like other consumer products because when used as intended, it kills over half of its long-term users," he said.

Malaysian Health Minister Chua Soi Lek told the meeting earlier that huge transnational tobacco companies were focusing their operations in Asia due to its booming market and favourable investment climate.

Although tobacco contributed significantly to national revenues, he said governments were actually making a net loss from this industry as they must allocate more money for tobacco-related costs.

"Over 70 percent of the approximately 10 million tobacco deaths projected for 2020 will occur in developing countries and Asean must rise up against this impending disease burden," he said.

Chua said Malaysia would use taxes from tobacco and alcohol sales to set up a health promotion foundation.

The two-day Asean meeting is being held specifically to discuss the impact of Afta on the tobacco trade and health.

Tariffs slashed under Afta

Under Afta, tariffs for most products have been lowered to below five percent since last year. Some Asean members want tobacco to be exempted to allow governments to raise tariffs for the product.

But Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Tobacco Control Alliance director Prakit Vathesatogkit told AFP that commercial conflicts were hampering efforts.

Multinational tobacco companies are making huge investments in the region, including a new British American Tobacco establishment in Burma, he said.

Brunei, Cambodia and Vietnam have excluded tobacco from their Afta list but to expand this regionwide would "not be easy" because of opposition from countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia, he added.

Earlier, Omi also urged the region to ratify the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which seeks to tighten regulations on tobacco trade.

So far 29 countries, including Asean members Brunei, Burma and Singapore, have ratified it but 40 are needed for it to become law, he said.

Thailand is expected to ratify the WHO convention by Tuesday while Malaysia is in the process of doing so, officials said.