House Democrats Call on Froman to Shield TPP Countries from Tobacco Challenges
The U.S. should ensure the Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t fuel a spike in tobacco consumption among negotiating parties by including language in the pact to shield those countries from tobacco industry challenge, said all 15 Democrats on the House Ways and…
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Means Committee in recent days. “As countries around the world are implementing meaningful tobacco control measures to prevent or reduce tobacco consumption, the tobacco industry is stepping up its opposition to those policies through industry initiated international trade disputes,” said the lawmakers in a July 24 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman (here). “Protecting the sovereign right of countries to adopt legitimate policies to reduce tobacco consumption from tobacco industry subversion in the TPP is critical to the health of the citizens of all of the TPP countries, including the United States.” Some U.S. public officials, lawmakers and health advocates have called for a tobacco “carve-out” in the agreement, a mechanism that would exempt that industry from dispute settlement (see 14012825). The lawmakers, led by Reps. Sandy Levin, D-Mich., and Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., urged Froman to honor an amendment on Fiscal Year 2014 appropriations legislation which barred the use of U.S. funds to promote tobacco exports.