Het lijkt erop alsof het IMF haar macht misbruikt om het nieuwe Wereldbank initiatief met betrekking tot roken te steunen door de Derde Wereld landen die zij in een knellende greep heeft, anti-tabakswetten af te dwingen:
ANKARA, June 21 (Reuters) – Turkey’s parliament late on Wednesday passed tobacco sector reform legislation essential to payment of the next tranche of a billion-dollar IMF crisis lending pact toward the end of June.
State-run Anatolian news agency said the law, stressed as crucial by IMF inspector Juha Kahkonen during a visit in early June, was passed in a late-night session of the parliament.
Turkey promised the Fund it would pass the tobacco law by the end of May but it ran up against opposition inside Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit’s three party coalition government.
Privatisation Minister Yuksel Yalova spoke of delays to the law and was swiftly pushed to resign.
Turkey’s national assembly has been working late into the night regularly recently, passing reams of economic reform laws drawn up by Economy Minister Kemal Dervis in order to convince the IMF and World Bank to back a $15.7 billion rescue package.
The IMF board is expected to meet in late June to approve a $1.56 billion payment from the loan.
The tobacco law aims to reform the sector in Turkey by scrapping from 2002 state-subsidised purchases of goods from farmers and by setting the stage for the privatisation of Turkey’s spirits and tobacco monopoly Tekel.
It aims to rationalise tobacco farming and remove tobacco plants from regions not expressly earmarked for the crop. It also establishes a seven-person regulatory board to oversee tobacco and alcohol. (remainder snipped)
