as obesity, i guess in a sense smoking is a form of slow suicide .. as is much of bad habits of so many .. where the hell is my lighter? .. lol .. sheesh .. again ..
Tobacco Firms’ Strategy Limits Poorer Nations’ Smoking Laws A cigarette display in Australia, where the tobacco industry lost a case last year. Philip Morris International has filed suit under an investment treaty. December 13, 2013 Tobacco companies are pushing back against a worldwide rise in antismoking laws, using a little-noticed legal strategy to delay or block regulation. The industry is warning countries that their tobacco laws violate an expanding web of trade and investment treaties, raising the prospect of costly, prolonged legal battles, health advocates and officials said. The strategy has gained momentum in recent years as smoking rates in rich countries have fallen and tobacco companies have sought to maintain access to fast-growing markets in developing countries. Industry officials say that there are only a few cases of active litigation, and that giving a legal opinion to governments is routine for major players whose interests will be affected. But tobacco opponents say the strategy is intimidating low- and middle-income countries from tackling one of the gravest health threats facing them: smoking. They also say the legal tactics are undermining the world’s largest global public health treaty, the W.H.O. Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [ http://www.who.int/fctc/text_download/en/ ], which aims to reduce smoking by encouraging limits on advertising, packaging and sale of tobacco products. More than 170 countries have signed it since it took effect in 2005. More than five million people die annually of smoking-related causes, more than from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, according to the World Health Organization [ http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2012/9789241564434_eng.pdf ]. Alarmed about rising smoking rates among young women, Namibia, in southern Africa, passed a tobacco control law in 2010 but quickly found itself bombarded with stern warnings from the tobacco industry that the new statute violated the country’s obligations under trade treaties. “We have bundles and bundles of letters from them,” said Namibia’s health minister, Dr. Richard Kamwi. Three years later, the government, fearful of a punishingly expensive legal battle, has yet to carry out a single major provision of the law, like limiting advertising or placing large health warnings on cigarette packaging. The issue is particularly urgent now as the United States completes talks on a major new trade treaty with 11 Pacific Rim countries that aims to be a model for the rules of international commerce. Administration officials say they want the new treaty to raise standards for public health. They single out tobacco [ http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/2013/august/fact-sheet-tobacco-and-tpp ] as a health concern, wording that upset the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, which said [ http://www.scribd.com/doc/163744879/Letter-to-Ambassador-Michael-Froman-opposing-inclusion-of-proposal-addressing-tobacco-in-the-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-TPP ] that the inclusion would leave the door open for other products, like soda or sugar, to be heavily regulated in other countries. “Our goal in this agreement is to protect the legitimate health regulations that treaty countries want to pursue from efforts by tobacco companies to undermine them,” said Michael Froman, the United States trade representative, in a telephone interview. The language is not yet final, he said. But public health advocates say the current wording would not stop countries from being sued when they adopt strong tobacco control measures, though some trade experts said it might make the companies less likely to win. This fall, more than 50 members of the House and about a dozen members of the Senate sent letters to the administration expressing concern. Tobacco consumption more than doubled in the developing world from 1970 to 2000, according to the United Nations [ http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4956e/y4956e04.htm ]. Much of the increase was in China, but there has also been substantial growth in Africa [ http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@internationalaffairs/documents/document/acspc-041294.pdf ], where smoking rates have traditionally been low. More than three-quarters of the world’s smokers now live in the developing world. Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the W.H.O., said in a speech last year [ http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2012/tobacco_20120320/en/ ] that legal actions against Uruguay, Norway and Australia were “deliberately designed to instill fear” in countries trying to reduce smoking. “The wolf is no longer in sheep’s clothing, and its teeth are bared,” she said. [...] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/health/tobacco-industry-tactics-limit-poorer-nations-smoking-laws.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/health/tobacco-industry-tactics-limit-poorer-nations-smoking-laws.html?pagewanted=all ] [with comments] [also at http://www.nbcnews.com/business/big-tobacco-battles-limit-smoking-laws-poorer-nations-2D11741730 (with comments)]
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China considers nationwide ban on smoking in public Smoking is deeply ingrained in the country’s culture, and there is no social stigma against smoking anywhere, at any time. Rulers of country that is home to more than 300 million smokers mull ban that could be implemented within a year 11 December 2013 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/china-considers-nationwide-ban-smoking-public [with comments]
Australia wins international legal battle with Philip Morris over plain packaging
.. slow out of the gate this one, i really thought it had been posted before .. anyway a top Australian (thank you Julia Gillard) win with international repercussions so should be here ..
"Australia’s plain tobacco packaging law at the WTO"
Tobacco giant fails in its bid to overturn laws using clause in 1993 Hong Kong bilateral trade deal after arbitration court rules it does not have jurisdiction
Packs of Philip Morris cigarettes in plain packaging in 2012. Australia’s laws were the world’s first and similar laws have since been put in place by other countries. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
Daniel Hurst Political correspondent @danielhurstbne
Thursday 17 December 2015 21.19 EST Last modified on Wednesday 26 October 2016 18.55 EDT
Australia has won an international legal battle to uphold its world-leading tobacco control measures, with Philip Morris failing in its long-running attempt to challenge plain packaging laws .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/06/australia-plain-packaging-cigarettes .. under a bilateral trade agreement with Hong Kong.
The decision could give other countries greater confidence to follow Australia’s lead in outlawing tobacco company logos on cigarette packets and moving to drab, uniform designs dominated by graphic health warnings.
Philip Morris Asia Limited launched its challenge .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/27/philip-morris-australia-cigarette-packets .. against the Australian government in 2011, seeking to rely on an argument that the ban on trademarks breached foreign investment provisions of Australia’s 1993 Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with Hong Kong.
But the arbitral tribunal has declined jurisdiction to hear the case, the company said in a statement issued on Friday.
The minister responsible for tobacco policy, Fiona Nash, said: “We welcome the unanimous decision by the tribunal agreeing with Australia’s position that it has no jurisdiction to hear Philip Morris’s claim.”
Philip Morris said it was reviewing the decision in detail to consider its next options, but sought to head off suggestions that other countries should follow suit.
“There is nothing in today’s outcome that addresses, let alone validates, plain packaging in Australia or anywhere else,” said Marc Firestone, Philip Morris International .. https://www.theguardian.com/business/philip-morris-international .. senior vice president and general counsel.
“It is regrettable that the outcome hinged entirely on a procedural issue that Australia chose to advocate instead of confronting head on the merits of whether plain packaging is legal or even works.”
But the Public Health .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/health .. Association of Australia welcomed the decision as “the best Christmas present for public health nationally and internationally”.
“Smoking in Australia is falling in adults, in children and by tobacco volume sales,” said the association’s chief executive, Michael Moore.
“Now the tobacco companies have lost another crucial legal bid to stop this life-saving measure. The message is loud and clear – plain packaging works, and it is here to stay.”
Professor Mike Daube, who chaired the government’s expert committee that recommended plain packaging, said the tobacco companies were “desperate to prevent plain packaging here and internationally because they know it works”.
Todd Harper, the chief executive of the Cancer Council Victoria, said the implementation of plain packaging on a global scale was “the worst nightmare of the tobacco industry”.
“Other countries should feel confident that bullying tactics of big tobacco cannot stand in the way of public health measures.”
Australia’s plain packaging laws were introduced by Julia Gillard’s Labor government in 2011. The laws banned tobacco companies from displaying their distinctive colours, brand designs and logos on cigarette packs.
In 2012, the Australian high court rejected a domestic challenge against the laws brought by major tobacco companies.
The Australia-Hong Kong investment treaty at the heart of the international challenge contained the type of “investor-state dispute settlement mechanism” that has caused controversy in trade policy debates.
The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said Australia had “dodged a bullet” because of the jurisdictional ruling, butkept signing trade deals that gave corporations “the right to sue us for making laws that might impinge on a foreign corporation’s profits”.
Labor’s health spokeswoman, Catherine King, seized on the ruling as a vindication of the strategy adopted by the former health ministers Nicola Roxon and Tanya Plibersek.
“As feared by tobacco companies, Australia’s lead is now creating an unstoppable momentum with France today joining Britain and Ireland in voting to introduce plain packaging, and dozens of other countries set to follow,” King said.
The permanent court of arbitration is yet to publish the decision outlining its reasons.
Guardian Australia has been told the decision means the arbitration is over, other than any proceedings related to the recovery of Australia’s costs and subject to any appeal Philip Morris Asia may seek to launch in Singapore, which is the seat of the arbitration.
The government still faces a separate challenge .. https://www.ag.gov.au/tobaccoplainpackaging .. against plain packaging in the World Trade Organisation after Ukraine see below], Honduras, Indonesia, Dominican Republic and Cuba argued the measure breached Australia’s international obligations. A decision is expected in the second half of 2016.
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, and the trade minister, Andrew Robb, said the government was committed to defending the international challenges because the plain packaging laws were “an important and legitimate measure” designed to protect public health.
.. head hitting desk wondering how that ISDS Australian win was not posted earlier, but a search for one on the decision failed me, still feel it was .. anyway, fuck you Philip Morris ..
The environment would pay for 'free trade' [...] Under the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, Australia could be forced to pay foreign corporations not to dig up or destroy its coastline or native forests, writes Tom Warne-Smith.
What would you do if an international company decided to stick a toxic waste dump next to your house? Lodging an objection with your council is a good start - but what if the company could claim millions of dollars in damages if the council said no?
That's exactly what happened in Mexico when the municipality of Guadalcazar refused to issue a permit to build a waste dump because of the impact on the 800 surrounding residents and $16.6 million in 'compensation' .. https://icsid.worldbank.org/ICSID/FrontServlet?requestType=CasesRH&actionVal=showDoc&docId=DC542_En&caseId=C155 .. was awarded to the dump's US owners. [...] When Germany's Hamburg Environmental Authority issued a licence imposing water quality standards on a coal-fired power plant, energy giant Vattenfall commenced investor-state arbitration against the German government, seeking about €1.4 billion, plus arbitration costs and interest. Ultimately Germany and Vattenfall settled the dispute, with Germany agreeing to weaken environmental standards in favour of the corporation. Vattenfall has now started proceedings claiming a reported €3.7 billion in compensation as a result of the German government's decision to phase out nuclear power. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104383726
The ISDS provision of the TPP is the worst. At least it would be a more sovereign friendly and fairer forged trade deal without it.
It's good to be rid of that one, damn link would not stop loading .. could that be an example of technology experiencing some sort of addiction as Charlie had? .. or even technological empathy with Charlie? .. lol, shaddup Stewie .. wha??!!
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