The international context of alcohol policy

Abstract

Abstract The basic premise of this book, as laid out in Chapter 2, is that alcohol is no ordinary commodity. There was a moment in history, a century ago, when this was recognized at the international level. A series of agreements between the European colonial powers effectively controlled the market in ‘trade spirits’ by forbidding exports to Africa (Bruun et al. 1975). In recent decades, however, the operating assumption in international agreements has often been to treat alcoholic beverages as an ordinary commodity. In a world of increasing trade globalization, this operating assumption has meant that national and local alcohol policies, predicated on the extraordinary nature of alcohol, have increasingly come under pressure at the international level. This chapter describes how these pressures have arisen, and how they affect national alcohol policies and the prospects for alcohol control at an international level.