General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There is no way to reconcile the TPP with helping working Americans [View all]eridani
(51,907 posts)--requiring lwarning labels on on cigarettes. You don't need to be an expert in any particular field in order to read or think.
http://www.thenation.com/article/202409/free-trade-isnt-about-trade-its-about-bureaucrats-and-guns
Lets dig into an example. In 2011, Australia passed the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, designed to discourage the use of tobacco products by, among other things, requiring cigarette packages to have larger warnings, ugly colors, and no logos or advertisements. This act is clearly a predatory intervention against tobacco companies, designed explicitly to reduce their business in Australia by lowering smoking rates. As a result, Philip Morris Asia, a part of the American company Philip Morris International, is using an investor-state dispute settlement to stop enforcement and demand compensation, claiming this is a discriminatory expropriation. Instead of just the bureaucrats at the Australian government creating and administering rules for the selling of cigarettes, theres an additional layer of international bureaucratspositions created by trade agreementswho can overrule them.