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Minister continues to mislead on TPPA and tobacco
Minister continues to mislead on TPPA and tobacco
“Trade Minister Groser continues to mislead on the way that the TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) would affect health” said Dr Gay Keating of Doctors for Healthy Trade. “Saying that the TPPA won’t stop government making health regulation is like saying that there is nothing to stop anyone buying a house in Auckland. The TPPA will make it much harder and much more expensive for Government to get to its goal of Smokefree Aotearoa by 2025.“
“Recent statements from the Minister have
repeated carefully contrived half-truths. He keeps saying
that the government will not be prevented from regulating in
the public interest. That is simply misleading” said Dr
Keating, a public health specialist and
researcher.
“Of course the TPPA won’t have a
clause that New Zealand can’t make smokefree regulations.
But the TPPA would let companies sue us if we followed World
Health Organization advice and brought in stricter controls
on tobacco. The TPPA would make it too expensive and too
risky to bring in those law changes. The Minister is being
misleading. Under the TPPA there will be nothing to stop us
passing smokefree laws except the potentially exorbitant
price tag” she said.
The TPPA includes provisions
for Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) that are
currently in very few New Zealand treaties. Australia is
fighting an ISDS case where it is being sued by tobacco
giant Philip Morris over the law for plain packaging of
cigarettes. Even if Australia eventually wins, the cost of
defending their law will be high. It has already cost the
Australian government $50 million for the first stage of the
defence of regulating in the public interest. If Australia
should lose the tobacco company could be awarded hundreds of
millions dollars.
“Minister Groser needs to release
the text and openly discuss the issues rather than indulging
in name-calling. Instead of offering incomplete, misleading
statements and saying doctors and nurses are ‘breathless
children’, he needs to answer our well founded concerns
about the cost of medicines and tobacco control.” Dr
Keating said.
ENDS
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