International commodity trade in tobacco is big business, with an estimated annual value of $22 billion: $7 billion in raw material (tobacco leaves) and $15 billion in finished product (manufactured cigarettes).

China grows more than 40 percent of the world’s tobacco, but only 5 percent of China’s leaf is exported. Most of the remaining 95 percent is consumed domestically by China’s 350 million smokers. Brazil, India, and China grow most of the world’s tobacco leaf, overtaking former major producers such as the United States, where tobacco agriculture has been in steady decline for decades.

U.S. cigarette export volume has declined by more than 50 percent since 1996, valued at US$1.2 billion in 2006 (largely in sales to Japan). The Netherlands and Germany each export more than $3 billion in cigarettes annually. Many low- and middle-income countries, such as China, Malaysia, Poland, and Indonesia, are increasing capacity for cigarette production and export, competing aggressively with the major cigarette exporting nations.

To maximize profits, transnational tobacco companies seek markets with lower costs for tobacco agriculture and cigarette manufacturing, extending the tentacles of their deadly industry ever deeper into the world’s nascent economies. Thwarting the tobacco industry’s exploitation of emerging markets is a global health imperative.

U.S. Cigarette imports increased more than 500 percent from 2.6 billion sticks in 1996 to 17 billion in 2006.

Japan receives 75 percent of U.S. cigarette exports.

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco smoke
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco

Building on the first-ever global public health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 issued a comprehensive country-level report on the global tobacco epidemic. This report provides data from 179 countries covering 99% of the world’s population and sets baselines for implementation and enforcement of the six evidence-based and cost-effective policies of the WHO MPOWER strategy. Currently only 5% of the world’s population is fully protected by any one of the MPOWER interventions and no country implements and enforces all of them. By taking action to implement MPOWER, the leaders of governments and civil society can create the necessary environment to protect children from tobacco, help people quit tobacco use and save millions of lives a year.

The final version of the online Tobacco Atlas will have information on MPOWER steps related to the issues portrayed on each map.