Mary Assunta & Yodhim Dela Rosa
The latest Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index (the Index) has found the tobacco industry (TI) continues to be aggressive and blatant in its attempts to undermine governments’ efforts to implement tobacco control measures. Policymakers from non-health government ministries such as finance, commerce, trade and agriculture were specifically targeted and persuaded to do industry bidding with their ministries of health. The Index also identified that the TI targeted legislators and elected officials to challenge policies or laws in parliament, even when the health ministry acted decisively to strengthen tobacco control measures.
The 2025 Index, the fifth in the series, saw a new milestone in its coverage of 100 countries, ranking them on their efforts in implementing Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) (Figure 1). Article 5.3 requires Parties to protect their public health policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry. Using a revised version of the 2014 questionnaire developed by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), this civil society report awards scores to countries based on evidence of their performance, from 1 April 2023 to 30 March 2025: the lower the score, the lower the level of interference.
The top performing countries in the 2025 Index are Brunei Darussalam, Palau, Botswana, Finland, the Netherlands and Ethiopia. The most improved scores were recorded by Uruguay, Maldives, Palau, Chile, Canada and Venezuela. These countries, from different regions and varying economic status, indicate it is political will that is needed to protect public health from industry interference. Maldives and Ethiopia, in particular were, commended for their achievement in implementing Article 5.3 guidelines (Figure 2).
The Maldives Customs Service in 2024 removed duty exemptions that applied to cigarettes and other tobacco products, and the country also implemented regulations prohibiting promoting tobacco business interests – reinforcing that no preferential treatment or incentives should be given to the tobacco industry. The government also banned e-cigarettes and in July this year, announced the generational endgame which means tobacco will never be sold to those born from January 2007, an important step in denormalising the tobacco industry.
Ethiopia implemented Article 5.3 through their Proclamation 1112/2019 to reject collaboration with the tobacco industry in the development or implementation of tobacco control policies. The Ethiopian Food and Drug Administration (EFDA), working in collaboration with civil society, conducted awareness campaigns and workshops among senior government officials to protect tobacco control policies. Recently, the EFDA shut down the JTI’s sponsored meeting hall in Hawassa City, in accordance with the Proclamation.
The worst performing countries are the Dominican Republic, Switzerland, the United States, Georgia and Japan. New Zealand, the United States, Cambodia, Nicaragua, France and the Philippines saw the greatest deterioration in their scores since the 2023 report. In the rankings, New Zealand fell from 2nd in the 2023 rankings to 53rd in 2025, a significant drop of 51 places as the new government reversed world class tobacco control policies. Cambodia fell 28 places, Nicaragua 27 places and the Philippines 22 places.
Parliamentarians in 14 countries were found to have supported and promoted the tobacco industry by filing pro-industry bills, accepting industry propositions that resulted in delayed adoption of tobacco control laws, or promoting legislation that would benefit the industry. The Index also reported that members of parliament, ministers and governors had accepted industry sponsored study visits to tobacco company facilities. There were also many instances of heads of state promoting the TI by visiting its facilities, attending its events, giving it an audience or endorsing its investments, drawing public-health criticism for undermining WHO FCTC Article 5.3. The most common facility visited was the Philip Morris International’s research facility in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The Japanese embassies in at least seven countries, including Bolivia, Cambodia, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, Nicaragua and Tanzania, was lobbied by Japan Tobacco International (JTI) to support and promote its business. The embassies participated in events such as JTI’s corporate social responsibility activities, facilitated memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and explored future investment opportunities for JTI in the country. In Cambodia, the Japanese embassy facilitated an MOU between JTI and the Ministry of Environment to strengthen environmental conservation and sustainable development, and in Tanzania, an MOU was created between the government and JTI to purchase local tobacco leaves.
The Index exposes the TI’s hypocrisy of discouraging governments from strictly regulating tobacco while also framing itself as part of the solution, even when its core purpose remains selling products that create nicotine dependence and increasing its market. Health ministries across the globe faced industry interference in their efforts to either ban or strictly regulate electronic nicotine delivery systems (e-cigarettes) and heated tobacco products (HTPs). This included attempting to revoke existing bans through court cases, weakening regulations, opposing and delaying tax increases of these products, and lobbying policymakers to pass laws favourable to the industry. For example, efforts to ban flavors in tobacco and nicotine products were undermined in Belgium, Finland, and Israel.
According to Roy Small from the United Nations Development Program, “Long before ‘fake news,’ the tobacco industry built an empire of harm on disinformation and continues to adapt its tactics to undermine governance and public health.” As of May 2025, at least 46 countries have banned e-cigarettes and HTPs, including more recently the Maldives, Venezuela and Vietnam, while the industry continues to push these products.
In the 2025 Global Progress Report on the implementation of the WHO FCTC, countries identified tobacco industry interference as the main challenge to their efforts. Article 5.3 guidelines give countries the necessary tools to equip governments to protect public health. As demonstrated by Maldives, Ethiopia and other countries, standing up to the tobacco industry can be done, all it takes is political will.
Read and download the 2025 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index here.
Authors
Mary Assunta is the head of Global Research and Advocacy and Yodhim Dela Rosa is the Global Research Coordinator at the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control, Thailand