Editorials
Friday, January 16, 1998THE U.N. Security Council is facing open defiance from Iraq over sanctions imposed after the Gulf War, but there is reason to doubt that the council is willing to defend its credibility by authorizing a military response. It should. U.N. should respond to Iraq's defiance
On Wednesday the Security Council unanimously adopted a statement deploring the blocking of an American-led team of weapons inspectors and "Iraq's subsequent failure to fulfill its obligations to provide the (inspectors) with full, unconditional and immediate access to all sites."
But Iraq shrugged off the protest. Iraq's top U.N. representative said U.N. objections had lost the power to move his government. Defense Secretary William Cohen said President Clinton remains focused on diplomatic options to end the latest standoff and any consideration of questions regarding the use of force would be premature.
But it may well come to that, and it is clear that the council would be reluctant to endorse such an operation. The coalition that former President Bush assembled for Operation Desert Storm has disintegrated and the United States might have to act alone.
Whether President Clinton would approve anything more than a minimal air strike in retaliation is far from clear. Such slaps on the wrist have had little effect in the past. But the U.N. must respond to Saddam Hussein's defiance at some point or suffer a crippling blow to its credibility.
GOVERNOR Cayetano's Economic Revitalization Task Force is preparing to launch a marketing campaign to promote its recommendations. It will need to do better than the ill-conceived "thumbs up" ad campaign that tried to boost confidence in the stagnant Hawaii economy. Tax proposals
The task force, comprised of business executives, union officers and legislative leaders, produced a long list of recommendations but the key ones propose a mixture of personal and corporate income tax cuts and increases in the general excise tax and hotel room tax.
The proposed excise tax increase, from the current 4 percent to 5.35 percent, is easily the most controversial part of the package and the one that could be the hardest to sell to the Legislature. Although the tax package is intended to stimulate business activity, a key part of the private sector, small business, doesn't think an increase in the excise tax would be beneficial, even though it would be combined with a reduction in the pyramiding of the tax. That negative reaction was expressed at the convention of Small Business Hawaii. Maui Mayor Linda Lingle, who opposes the excise tax increase, got an enthusiastic response. Cayetano's reception was hostile.
The package is intended to shift the tax burden to tourists through the increases in the excise and room taxes. Hawaii residents would benefit from a cut in the top marginal income tax rate from 10 percent to 7 percent and later to 6 percent, with other rates reduced proportionately. Corporate income tax and franchise tax rates would be cut in half. Low-income families would get a tax credit to offset the excise tax increase.
But people usually don't like a tax hike under any circumstances. Small business, which complained that it was largely excluded from the task force, feels that sales could be hurt because the excise tax increase would raise its prices. There is also a question whether tourism would be affected.
What will emerge from the Legislature is hard to predict. But a vigorous campaign to drum up support for the recommendations may well be needed if the task force is to prevail.
TOBACCO companies have long denied ever targeting minors in the marketing efforts, but critics have harbored doubts about the claim. Those doubts now have substance. Company documents obtained through legal skirmishing have confirmed that RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. conducted extensive market research aimed at getting more youngsters to buy its cigarettes, then launched the Joe Camel cartoon character to appeal to that age group. Aiming at minors
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., obtained the documents from a recently settled lawsuit against RJR. The suit accused RJR of using Joe Camel to market its cigarettes to minors. In 1994 congressional hearings chaired by Waxman, tobacco industry officials denied ever marketing cigarettes to youth. RJR advised the Food and Drug Administration two years later that its market research always was limited to "all lawful smokers aged 18 or older."
However, in a 1973 memorandum analyzing how rival Philip Morris was gaining a larger share of the youth market through its Marlboro brand, the company concluded that "comic strip type copy might get a much higher readership among younger people than any other type of copy," Waxman said. The next year, a marketing official told the company's board that "this young adult market, the 14-24 age group...represent(s) tomorrow's cigarette business." Joe Camel then came onto the scene.
A 1976 document showed that RJR had conducted extensive research on the youth market based on the smoking habits of 11,000 children aged 14-17. A memo from the company's marketing director to then-CEO E.A. Harrigan four years later also contained detailed information about the company's market share among the 14-17 age group.
RJR agreed to retire Joe Camel last year under terms of a tentative agreement in which it offered to pay billions of dollars to settle lawsuits by 40 states, including Hawaii, and the federal government. The documents that detail RJR's record of lying to the public increase the likelihood that Congress will try to make the agreement tougher on the tobacco companies.
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
