On June 20, 1997, representatives of major tobacco companies such as Philip Morris and others reached an agreement with Mississippi Attorney-General Moore and 40 state lawyers at the Washington Garden Keyhill Hotel, in which the U.S. Tobacco Company would pay $36.85 billion in compensation to Americans for smoking disease over the next 25 years. After 25 years, $15 billion would be added annually. As an exchange, the tobacco company would be exempt from criminal liability. Because the amount of compensation involved in the agreement was unprecedentedly large, it was called a ¡°historic agreement¡±.

Why did the U.S. tobacco companies, which have never been accused in court, agree to pay so much compensation, mainly because the increasing damage to the national economy caused by smoking has caused tobacco companies to be increasingly ¡°embraced¡± by the government, the medical community and anti-smoking organizations.

According to relevant government statistics, about 400,000 people die from smoking every year in the United States, causing economic losses of no less than $100 billion annually.

The U.S. Big Tobacco Company is a worldwide enterprise and uses the world as a consumer market. However, despite the surprising profits of the tobacco company, how can they be willing to force the company¡¯s owners to put so much money out as a ¡°reconciliation fee¡±? In order to do this, they must be able to make up for the ¡°tubacco¡± losses. The $36.85 billion will eventually fall on the consumers¡¯ heads in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific countries.

It is estimated that to pay the "reconciliation fee", tobacco companies will raise the retail price of cigarettes, which will lead to a sharp decline in cigarette sales in the U.S. market, while cigarettes that are not sold at home will inevitably flow to developing countries, especially the Asia-Pacific market.

According to statistics, the global number of deaths due to smoking is 3 million annually, of which 2.5 million cases occur in countries outside the United States, the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, 10 million will die annually worldwide from smoking-related diseases, of which 7 million will occur in developing countries. According to a study report by the University of California in the United States, in Asia, the highest rate of smoking is in Vietnam, followed by China and Indonesia. The major U.S. tobacco companies are targeting the Asian market and focusing on Vietnam and China.

The U.S. tobacco company¡¯s intention to bring ¡°tobacco poison¡± to developing countries has caused strong reactions. The Asia-Pacific Counter-Tobacco Association, comprised of 19 countries and regions, has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice stating that U.S. tobacco traders cannot transfer huge amounts of compensation to developing countries, hurting the interests of the people of developing countries. At the same time, the letter also requires U.S. tobacco traders to pay $10 billion annually to the World Health Organization as funds for tobacco control programmes.