Abstract
Public health advocates and policy makers have long considered how to translate the successes of tobacco control measures to address alcohol abuse and the excessive consumption of ultra-processed and nutrient-poor foods. Correspondingly, the strategies adopted by tobacco companies to prevent or delay regulation often parallel those adopted by the alcohol and food industries. Philip Morris, a leading tobacco company, has recently used investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms as a new strategy to hinder or prevent tobacco control measures in the form of plain packaging requirements. The cases that followed may have implications for the development of novel consumption-control measures, like plain packaging laws, aimed at preventing non-communicable diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. This paper considers how the challenges to tobacco control measures through ISDS mechanisms could affect the development of consumption-control measures aimed at reducing alcohol abuse and unhealthy food consumption for non-communicable disease prevention. Using the recent ISDS challenges by Philip Morris as case studies, this paper draws out lessons and issues for the future development of consumption-control measures.
Highlights
Investor–state dispute settlement (‘investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS)’) provisions in investment treaties allow foreign investors to use international investment dispute settlement processes against a host government in particular circumstances
This paper considers how the challenges to tobacco control measures through ISDS mechanisms could affect the development of consumption-control measures aimed at reducing alcohol abuse and unhealthy food consumption for non-communicable disease prevention
As the Australian government was working towards the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act in 2011, Philip Morris’s Hong Kong affiliate, Philip Morris Asia Ltd (‘PM Asia’), acquired the Australian Philip Morris subsidiary
Summary
Investor–state dispute settlement (‘ISDS’) provisions in investment treaties allow foreign investors to use international investment dispute settlement processes against a host government in particular circumstances. A significant body of work has examined how liberal trade policies, and aspects of globalisation more generally, have led to a shift within middle and low-income countries towards ‘Western’ diets that increase the risk of NCDs.9 The consumption of these risk commodities is the main behaviour that regulatory interventions can influence to reduce the impact of NCDs.. QUT Law Review Volume 17 (2) – Special Issue: Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products measures, prevention and education initiatives, and legislative measures.12 These responses are facilitated and required by the World Health Organization’s (‘WHO’) International Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (‘FCTC’), the first, and at present the only international treaty supporting consumption-control measures for a risk commodity. Based on these case studies, this article draws out potential implications of ISDS mechanisms for the future of consumption-control policies
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