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August 27th, 2013:

Tobacco clause might burn free trade agreement

http://www.smh.com.au/business/tobacco-clause-might-burn-free-trade-agreement-20130825-2sjuk.html

Tobacco clause might burn free trade agreement

Date

August 26, 2013

·(2)

Peter Martin

Peter Martin

Economics correspondent

Trade Minister Mustapa Mohammed.

Trade Minister Mustapa Mohammed. Photo: Erin Jonasson

The timetable for completing the world’s largest free trade agreement is slipping as negotiators in Brunei express concern at US proposals to give tobacco companies the power to sue governments and to weaken government control of state-owned enterprises.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations now include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, as well as Japan, which joined in this year.

Australia absented itself from the trade ministers’ meeting because of the election.

In a blow to US hopes of wrapping up the negotiations this year the joint statement released in Brunei described the remaining issues as “sensitive and challenging”.

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The US had wanted to finish talks this year to fit in with a domestic political timetable.

Before the meeting New York mayor Michael Bloomberg accused President Barack Obama of bowing to “pressure from the tobacco industry” to dump a so-called safe-harbour provision that would have protected nations such as Australia from being sued by tobacco companies for restricting the sale of tobacco products.

Earlier drafts had included the safe-harbour clause in light of “the unique status of tobacco products from a health and regulatory perspective”.

Mr Bloomberg said the tobacco industry had been “joined by other business interest groups that were fearful the safe-harbour provision would lead to other products being singled”.

Australia’s Labor government has said it would not accept any provisions that would allow corporations to sue Australian governments. The Coalition has given no such commitment.

Malaysia’s trade minister Mustapa Mohamed told the meeting he would not be bound by arbiter-proposed clauses that would loosen Malaysia’s grip on state-owned enterprises and threaten its “affirmative action” program of giving preference to ethnic Malays when awarding contracts.

He said other countries shared his concern about state-owned enterprises.

The negotiations will continue at an officials level before a ministerial meeting at APEC in Bali in October

Why Is Obama Caving on Tobacco?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/opinion/why-is-obama-caving-on-tobacco.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Op-Ed Contributor

Why Is Obama Caving on Tobacco?

Description: Description: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/08/23/opinion/0823OPEDcampbell/0823OPEDcampbell-articleLarge.jpg

Harry Campbell

By MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG

Published: August 22, 2013 321 Comments

LAST year I endorsed President Obama for re-election largely because of his commitment to putting science and public health before politics. But now the Obama administration appears to be on the verge of bowing to pressure from a powerful special-interest group, the tobacco industry, in a move that would be a colossal public health mistake and potentially contribute to the deaths of tens of millions of people around the world.

For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT.

Although the president’s signature domestic issue has been health-care reform, his legacy on public health will be severely tarnished — at a terrible cost to the poor in the developing world — unless his administration reverses course on this issue.

Today in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, representatives from the United States and 11 other nations begin the latest round of negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multinational trade agreement. The pact is intended to lower tariffs and other barriers to commerce, a vitally important economic goal. But if it is achieved at the expense of people’s health, the United States and countries around the world will be worse off for it.

The early drafts of the agreement included a “safe harbor” provision protecting nations that have adopted regulations on tobacco — like package warnings and advertising and marketing restrictions — because of “the unique status of tobacco products from a health and regulatory perspective.” This provision would have prevented the tobacco industry from interfering with governments’ sovereign right to protect public health through tobacco control laws.

Countries (and cities) that have adopted such regulations have had great success reducing smoking rates and saving lives. In New York City, where we have adopted some of the most comprehensive tobacco policies in the world, the smoking rate among adults has fallen by nearly one-third, and among high school students it has been cut in half. This progress helped to increase average life expectancy: in 2010, it was 80.9 years in the city, more than two years longer than in the country as a whole.

This week, however, the Obama administration bowed to pressure from the tobacco industry and dumped the safe harbor provision from the trade compact. The tobacco industry was joined by other business interest groups that were fearful that the safe harbor provision would lead to other products’ being singled out in future trade accords.

So instead of the safe harbor, the Obama administration is now calling for a clause requiring that before a government can challenge another’s tobacco regulation under the treaty, their health authorities must “discuss the measure.” The administration will also try to ensure that a general exception for matters to protect human life or health (typical in trade agreements) applies specifically to tobacco regulation.

But these are weak half-measures at best that will not protect American law — and the laws of other countries — from being usurped by the tobacco industry, which is increasingly using trade and investment agreements to challenge domestic tobacco control measures.

If the Obama administration’s policy reversal is allowed to stand, not only will cigarettes be cheaper for the 800 million people in the countries affected by the trade pact, but multinational tobacco corporations will be able to challenge those governments — including America’s — for implementing lifesaving public health policies. This would not only put our tobacco-control regulations in peril, but also create a chilling effect that would prevent further action, which is desperately needed.

Tobacco use causes more deaths around the world than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. If nothing is done, one billion people will die of tobacco use by the end of this century. Through my philanthropy, I have supported grass-roots efforts overseas to discourage tobacco use. Bangladesh, for instance, has enacted new rules that are a big step toward banning smoking in public places and on all modes of transportation. In Vietnam, we helped build public support for comprehensive new legislation that includes some of the most effective tobacco-control techniques, like advertising bans and graphic warning labels on packages.

But if the trade pact proceeds without the safe harbor provision, this progress will be jeopardized, a devastating setback for the global effort to reduce tobacco use, particularly because the signatories to the trade pact include nations — like the United States, Australia and Vietnam — that have some of the world’s strongest tobacco control measures. If the Obama administration caves, the tobacco rules of its own Food and Drug Administration will be subject to challenge.

I could not be more strongly in favor of trade agreements that expand economic opportunity here and around the globe. But a deal that sells out our national commitment to public health, and forfeits our sovereign authority over our tobacco laws, does not merit the support of Mr. Obama; of the Senate, which would have to ratify it; or of the American people.

Michael R. Bloomberg is the mayor of New York City.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on August 23, 2013, on page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: Why Is Obama Caving on Tobacco?.