Tobacco Talks To Be Extended: AP. Wednesday, July 29, 1998;6:47 pm:
" Talks between cigarette makers and state attorney generals to salvage a national tobacco settlement will extend at least into next week, a state negotiator said Wednesday.
The negotiators will meet again Thursday and then break for a three-day weekend to report their progress to their respective camps, North Carolina Attorney General Mike Easley said.
We're doing well and moving past some of those major hurdles that we have to get out of the way. Easley said in a conference call with reporters. Now is the time to let both sides go back and talk to the people they are representing.
He said the discussions remain focused on health concerns and measures- such as tobacco marketing restrictions - to curb teen-age smoking, though he declined to give any details.
However, Fred Olsen, a spokesman for Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire, one of the lead state negotiators , told the Associated Press early Wednesday that the two sides had begun to address some money matters.
Both sides are SATISFIED THAT THEY ARE MAKING GOOD PROGRESS- enough so that even though there are public health issues to be resolved , they are starting to talk money issues, he said.
Gregoire is seen among her colleagues as eager to reach a settlement because her lawsuit , scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 14 has been characterized as weaker than those being prepared by other states.
The negotiations are scheduled to resume on Monday, though it was not immediately certain where the talks would take place.
Both sides returned to the bargaining table on Monday at the Manhattan offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell, a law firm that represents RJ Reynolds Tobacco CO.
The tobacco industry and state attorneys general are trying to settle 37 pending lawsuits by states seeking to recover tens of billions of dollars spent treating sick smokers over the last several decades.
Besides North Carolina and Washington, other states involved in the talks are California, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.
Mississippi, Minnesota, Texas and Florida have separately settled their lawsuits for 36.8 billion." |
