A Breakthrough with the TPP: The Tobacco Carve-Out

Abstract

This comment discusses the tobacco ‘carve-out’, an important trade policy breakthrough. This year public health advocates have struck a blow against tobacco companies, which will be barred from bringing challenges under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (or TPP), an international deal that will regulate about one-third of global GDP. This measure is the first of its kind. As a result, the tobacco industry has promised to derail the TPP in the US Congress because of what they consider to be an unfair and arbitrary exclusion. In the comment we welcome a departure from a policy of unqualified support for the tobacco industry by U.S. trade authorities. We attempt to influence the public debate in light of the coming approval process of the TPP in the Congress.

Keywords: International law, International Trade, Tobacco Carve-Out, Regional Trade Agreements, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership