December 17, 2013
Trade pact could nix tobacco control
There’s a warning the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement could sink a plan to put tobacco products in plain packaging.
Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia wants to put her plain packaging bill before parliament early next year, but the Government says it won’t pass all its stages until a court challenge to a similar law in Australia is over.
Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey says the TPP deal being negotiated in secret between New Zealand and 11 other countries will make it easier for foreign companies to sue this country if laws are changed.
"Currently they haven’t got that many strong agreements they can rely on to do this but this Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement would give the tobacco companies strong rights and real entitlement to pursue those rights in these secretive off shore tribunals and claim up to a billion dollars of damages against New Zealand for its lost profit," she says.
Professor Kelsey says the TPP will also hinder the ability of iwi to protest against international mining companies who want to drill or mine their whenua.
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