November 9, 2015 Last week, after many years of painful negotiation, the final text for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement was released. This is the text that the U.S. Congress and Parliaments from 11 other countries will consider. At the moment, it is far from a slam dunk that it
But tobacco farmers are not part of the game Mitch McConnell and other pro-tobacco politicians have become very vocal over the past two weeks in their opposition to a potential partial tobacco exemption in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. And just as in so many other political debates, they are
Big Tobacco is pushing back against a strict anti-smoking provision in the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and has enlisted the support of the most powerful Republican in the Senate to help quash it. The ire of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other tobacco-state lawmakers could throw a wrench
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Megan Arendt Office: 202-659-4310 Email: arendtm@ash.org Obama Can Help End Tobacco Epidemic, Says ASH Action on Smoking & Health (ASH) Calls on President Obama to Choose Health Over Profits WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 24, 2015 – President Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Froman have the
In 2012, Australia implemented tough anti-tobacco regulations, requiring that all cigarettes be sold in plain, logo-free brown packages dominated by health warnings. Philip Morris Asia filed suit, claiming that this violated its intellectual-property rights and would damage its investments. The company sued Australia in domestic court and lost. But it
Tobacco and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The inclusion of tobacco control in the Sustainable Development Goals has been in the works for several years. It is due to various advocacy efforts of the Framework Convention Alliance and the support of NGO partners and allied missions in New York and
Those requirements have appeared in previous fast-track bills. They sound perfectly reasonable, right? Well, consider this: Australia is a party to the TPP and already has a free trade agreement with the United States. Under Australian law, cigarettes must be sold in “plain packaging.” Health warnings have to cover at
December 9, 2014 An ISDS carve-out in the TPPA would be good for tobacco control, but not good enough. There has been some scuttlebutt in trade circles over the past weeks about a possible US proposal in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations to exempt tobacco measures from the investment
Almost 200 countries signed the World Health Organisation’s Tobacco Control Convention and are obliged to take measures to curb tobacco use. But the industry has hit back. A big tobacco company, Philip Morris, has taken Uruguay and Australia to tribunals under bilateral investment treaties, claiming billions of dollars in compensation
The Chamber of Commerce is undercutting its trade agenda by supporting Big Tobacco. Since early in 2011, much of our attention here at ASH has been focused on the nexus between trade and tobacco, in particular on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). If you have followed this issue, you’ve seen
January 27, 2014 Ambassador Michael Froman Office of the United States Trade Representative 600 17th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20208 Dear Ambassador Froman: The undersigned Attorneys General write to request that the United States Trade Representative act to preserve the ability of state and local governments to regulate tobacco products
Global trade negotiations in Washington this week will determine how cigarette companies will be able to market their products in developing nations—and potentially, overturn smoking restrictions around the world. As cigarette smoking has fallen in the United States and Europe thanks to public health laws and liability lawsuits, global tobacco
The U.S. has a rare opportunity this week to rein in the tobacco industry, and assert its mandate to protect and save lives, while proudly exercising cross-border diplomacy. The U.S. Trade Representative should accept a proposal to carve protections for Big Tobacco out of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a
Should tobacco be like any other product in U.S. trade? The question bedeviled U.S. policymakers for decades, but it has now arisen again, with much controversy, in the context of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the pending trade deal between the United States and eleven other countries. The White House has
Vietnam and other countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations face aggressive interference from Big Tobacco in the passage and implementation of public health policies, critics warn. The US government has sought to include tobacco in a regional free-trade pact, which would enable tobacco companies to use trade rules to
Give thanks to Malaysia for heading off, at least temporarily, an American effort to weaken the ability of countries to impose stiff rules on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products within their own borders. The Malaysian proposal to preserve that ability led to a stalemate at a Trans-Pacific
By Chris Bostic, ASH Deputy Director for Policy August 14th was a strange day in my professional life. I have worked to fight the global tobacco epidemic for almost exactly 12 years now, and there have been highs and lows. One of the biggest of each came on that Wednesday.
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia will not be bound by any fixed timeline with regards to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). At a special meeting convened today, the Cabinet made this stand as a number of issues, including that of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) or government-linked companies, labour and Intellectual
U.S. Unlikely To Table Drug IPR, Tobacco Proposal At Current TPP Round Posted: July 18, 2013 KOTA KINABALU — A spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative strongly signaled that U.S. negotiators will not offer any new formal proposals here on two controversial issues in the Trans-Pacific
Health advocates in Southeast Asia hope the 16th round of the negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) would acknowledge tobacco products are harmful and cause disease and death. There are 125 million smokers in the ASEAN region and tobacco related deaths are the top killer. Sadly, these deaths
Talks on a tobacco exception in a free trade agreement between the United States and ten other countries in the Asia-Pacific region – the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – became the subject of many unanswered questions during the stakeholder briefing with chief negotiators at Sky City on Friday, 7 Dec
The 15th negotiating round of the ongoing TransPacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement will end tomorrow in Auckland, New Zealand. This marks the fourth round that U.S. negotiators have failed to “table” (formally propose) a special exception protecting governments’ right to legislate on tobacco, which they promised back in May.
A letter from TPP Medical Student Association Presidents including the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) went out to TPP negotiators asking for access to the negotiating text as well as revisions or removal of provisions that threaten public health including tobacco. Stating that “Tobacco alone is responsible for
Delegates attending trans-Pacific free-trade negotiations in the United States are being warned their countries could end up like Australia if they agree to allow corporations to sue governments in international courts. Australia is fending off a challenge to its plain cigarette packets legislation from Philip Morris International under the terms
At yesterday’s TransPacific Partnership stakeholder event – a bit of political theater set up by the United States Trade Representative to demonstrate the “transparency” of the highly-secretive negotiations – negotiators from other countries eagerly sought us out to hear about how tobacco regulation is threatened by trade law. ASH’s Chris
