The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: A Gold-Plated Gift to the Global Tobacco Industry?

Proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPPA) describe it as a twenty-first century agreement that will reach further behind the border than any previous free trade or investment agreement. As the chief executive of Business New Zealand said during the round of TPPA negotiations in Auckland in December 2012: It is true that TPP is more than just a trade negotiation. That's because TPP has the capacity to reach further into domestic economies and domestic policy settings than a conventional trade agreement - as it must if the essential requirements of business are to be addressed and a real difference made, for growth, jobs and community success. More specifically, the TPPA aims to frame how governments make their domestic policy and regulatory decisions as a complement to more extensive rules that constrain the substance of those decisions. These “disciplines” aim to empower commercial players and advance their interests, and to marginalize competing priorities, advocates, and agencies; including democratic political institutions.