Tobacco firms weaponize trade treaties to sue countries that restrict cigarette advertising

Evidence

Despite the magnitude of the global epidemic of smoking-related diseases, tobacco firms threaten costly lawsuits against countries that impose limits on cigarette advertising. They justify the lawsuits on the grounds that limits on advertising violate trade and investment treaties. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (despite its name, not a government agency) added its opposition to advertising limits, invoking the slippery-slope justification: cigarettes today, soft drinks tomorrow (Tavernise, 2013b). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1706

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: ‘regulatory chill’ — how trade and investment treaties let private corporations sue sovereign states over public health policy, using arbitration clauses as a class of weapons.
• XREF: Connects to the tobacco-industry playbook literature and to work on how corporations use ISDS (investor-state dispute settlement) mechanisms.