RJR NABISCO TO CUT 3,000 TOBACCO JOBS

NEW YORK (AP) RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp., under fire at home and abroad
for the health consequences of smoking, said today it was eliminating
nearly 3,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its worldwide tobacco work force.

The bulk of the cuts will come from its international operations, where
about 2,600 jobs are being eliminated.

An additional 390 jobs are being eliminated in the United States at its
domestic headquarters and at a leaf processing plant, both in North
Carolina.

RJR said its cutbacks are part of a restructuring aimed at making its
tobacco business more profitable by cutting costs and redirecting its
spending to where prospects are more appealing for selling Camels, Winstons
and its other cigarette brands.

The tobacco industry has been looking overseas for growth as it has faced a
wave of lawsuits in the United States accusing it of selling cigarettes
even though it knew they may be addictive and could cause fatal diseases.

The government has joined in the attack by seeking recovery of its costs of
caring for sick smokers.

The industry has agreed to a legal settlement with its critics under which
it would pay more than $360 billion and accept limitations on how it
markets cigarettes. That pact is subject to congressional approval.

The industry generally faces fewer restrictions abroad. But there are signs
that may be changing as well as the European Union's health ministers
recently adopted rules that will phase out most tobacco advertising there
over the next eight years.

The cuts come a week after Philip Morris Cos., its chief rival in tobacco
and the world's leading tobacco company, announced it was eliminating 2,500
jobs from its international food business.

Steven F. Goldstone, RJR Nabisco chairman and chief executive, said the
restructuring will result in savings in excess of $170 million a year
starting in 2000.

But the move will result in onetime expenses that will reduce RJR's
earnings in the fourth quarter by about $310 million, or 95 cents a share.

RJR earned 73 cents a share in the fourth quarter last year and analysts
were expecting earnings for the OctoberDecember period this year of about
84 cents a share before any special charges.

RJR is the secondbiggest domestic tobacco company behind Philip Morris; it
ranks fourth internationally.

Goldstone said international tobacco has become an increasingly important
source of profit and is expected to be ``the most significant driver of our
future tobacco earnings growth.''

RJR said it hasn't made final decisions on exactly where the international
cutbacks will be made.

The international restructuring will improve the division's prospects,
allowing it to cut costs and freeing the division to invest more
aggressively behind ``its best growth opportunities,'' Goldstone said.

Domestically, the job cuts will involve about 190 fulltime positions at
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco headquarters in WinstonSalem, N.C., and 200 seasonal
posts at the North Carolina leaf processing facility at Brook Cove, N.C.