They didn't want to be associated with the tobacco industry.
This is what's been done. It's been implemented as of May 20 in the United Kingdom and France. Ireland is on the verge of a commencement date. Norway has a bill to be introduced in its parliament in early June. New Zealand has regulations that they announced for consultation last week.
Why is this important in the TPP? The tobacco industry has a history of abuse, seeking to use international trade and investment agreements to overturn bona fide public health tobacco control measures that apply equally to domestic and foreign companies. In the 1980s, they tried to invalidate Thailand, a developing country, with their ban on tobacco advertising, which was similar to a measure that Canada subsequently implemented. The highest court in Australia has upheld plain packaging. It was found not to be contrary Australia's constitution.
After the Australian government announced their intent to go with plain packaging, Phillip Morris moved its parent company. They had a shell company in Hong Kong and they took advantage of a Hong Kong-Australia bilateral investment agreement to say that Australia couldn't do this without paying compensation. Australia, on a preliminary basis, said it was abuse. In this case, the panel agreed. They can't do jurisdictional shopping.
Philip Morris International brought a claim under a Switzerland-Uruguay bilateral investment agreement saying that Uruguay's health warning of 85% size—Canada's is 75%—was an expropriation. There's an arbitration panel. We may see a decision in 2016. Uruguay also has a provision that says that you can only have one brand variation per pack. That's an abuse. If we have this provision, you can't even have the possibility of government's delaying their measures, because of intimidation by the tobacco industry. They have to deal with these legal proceedings, because you have this simple carve-out.
One of the benefits of plain packaging is that you would not have these slim packs that are targeted at women, attractive to young girls, associating smoking with weight loss and glamour and sophistication. Some of these packs are very sophisticated, glamourous, with a satin overwrap.
This is the type of public health measure being proposed for consultation in Canada. We support it. There are other examples of legal claims being brought by the tobacco industry in the United Kingdom. One of these has been dismissed, but it's under appeal.
Members of the committee, this is a very important issue from a public health perspective. I believe it has all-party support.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to give our views today.