Jane Kelsey briefs Maori Affairs select committee on TPPA and smoking

Professor Jane Kelsey is briefing the Maori Affairs select committee this morning on the TPPA at their request.

She is due to appear at 10am this morning.

The proposed Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement will have serious implications for the implementation of the recommendations of the Maori Affairs select committee tobacco policy, and the government's goal for Aotearoa NZ to be effectively smoke free by 2025.

Many New Zealanders support plain packaging of cigarettes to bring down the thousands of smoking related deaths each year.

But under the TPPA a tobacco company could complain that this hurt their profits, and sue for compensation – exactly what the makers of Marlboro cigarettes are trying to do to the Australian government right now under another trade agreement.