Tobacco giant sues Australia (ISDS Court)

[n2doc]

More than $50 million of taxpayer money is expected to go up in smoke defending cigarette plain packaging in a secretive international tribunal in Singapore.

But costs will pile much higher if Australia loses on its first defence that Philip Morris indulged in cynical “venue shopping” by shifting its headquarters to Hong Kong to sue Australia.

The West Australian can reveal the Attorney-General’s Department, which is running the case in defence of plain packaging, called former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan as a witness before a special tribunal sitting in Singapore back in February.

Philip Morris, which is claiming the plain packaging regime harms its intellectual property in such famous brands as Marlboro, Peter Jackson and Longbeach, called its own high-profile witnesses, also at considerable cost.

Among Philip Morris’ witnesses have been former High Court judge Ian Callinan who gave evidence on administrative law.

more

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/29064155/tobacco-giant-sues-australia/

[msongs]

1. the TPP. coming to a USA near you. wherein a primary politician sells us out to international

corporations

[quizzle]

2. TPP preview

[Hoyt]

3. Australia and other countries will continue to sign these agreements because they need to

attract foreign investors and provide protection for their on companies investing in other countries. ISDS has been in trade agreements between most countries since 1959.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Australia doesn't need large multinationals trying to change our laws...

Fuck that. Those millions of dollars being sunk into defending this are taxpayers money. I'm a taxpaying smoker and I'm fine with the plain packaging. What next? Being sued by some foreign mining company because of a shitload of minerals being in a protected area they're not allowed to mine in?

How about trade agreements that are good for all countries and not just the multinationals?

[Hoyt]

6. Like I said, Australia is ready to sign the next one to protect its companies and attract

new ones that bring jobs, tax revenue, and economic growth.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Uh, the conservative government is ready. Not the Left, though...

And we've already got jobs, tax revenue and economic growth. The TPP reeks, and even some of the conservatives are starting to waver on it. Not the Big Business types, though...

[Hoyt]

9. I suspect the left has signed their share of them too.

[joshcryer]

5. AU already got exempted under TPP.

This is silly. These types of lawsuits will be exempted where viable.

ISDS is definitely boilerplate, though, but AU got burned before, it won't happen again under TPP.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. I thought there was a list of things that Australia wants exempted, but the US is against that...

Things like Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme need to be exempted for sure, but I wasn't aware that they had been. Have you got a link to anything saying they have been exempted?