Big Tobacco TTIP Discussion Documents Censored By EU

Documents related to discussions between US, British and European
officials and multinational tobacco corporations concerning the
regulation of tobacco under a new trade agreement were censored by the European Commission.

According to Paul Gallagher, writing today in The Independent, activists with Corporate Europe Observatory revealed the meetings through a Freedom of Information request, but the documents were heavily edited:

Almost all the content, including the names of officials
and tobacco lobbyists involved, the issues discussed and even the dates
some meetings took place, had been redacted.

This censorship has stoked fears that Big Tobacco is planning an end
run around existing laws concerning the use of tobacco with the
assistance of public officials working on the trade deal.

TTIP is an agreement that parallels the corporate power grab knows as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),
but is limited to the United States and Europe. Like TPP, TTIP is
written by and for transnational business interests looking to loosen
regulations.

Among the objectives of TTIP
is further deregulating Wall Street/finance capital, lowering food
safety and environmental standards, and weakening trade unions. In other
words, the same agenda Big Business has always had but with new legal,
regulatory, and political tools to see their agenda achieved.

The new order brought in under TTIP and TPP creates opportunities for
Big Tobacco. The further empowerment of the corporate sector under the
trade deals means businesses can sue governments to weaken regulations.
It’s something Big Tobacco has already started doing using existing
international agreements.

In 2011, Australia enacted a “plain packaging” law for cigarettes
that required cigarette boxes to be in simple colors with an image
showing the dangers of smoking. Philip Morris International sued the
government of Australia and lost. But previous to the law being enacted
and the lawsuit being filed, Philip Morris had moved the trademark
related to the Australian market to Philip Morris Asia in Hong Kong.

That maneuver allowed Philip Morris to use investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions of a 1993 bilateral agreement between Australia and Hong Kong
to sue Australia for compensation for harming Hong Kong-based Philip
Morris Asia’s investments in Australia. Whichever way that suit is
resolved, the message is clear — Big Tobacco will use trade agreements
to attack public health laws related to smoking.

At a May 17, 2014 flashmob-style protest in Germany against the
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership international trade deal,
two activists hold signs objecting to the TTIP's potential effects on
data privacy and the deal's lack of transparency. (Flickr / campact)