How would plain packs legislation fare under TTIP?

An Irish member of the European Parliament has sought to widen the standardized-packaging debate by placing it against the background of trade agreements currently being negotiated.

In a written question to the European Commission, MEP Nessa Childers asked whether the Commission considered non-discriminatory standardized packaging legislation, such as that applicable to cigarette packaging, to be a form of acquisition of intellectual property; or whether any claims to intellectual property rights might arise as a consequence of such legislation under present trade agreements or agreements the Commission had a current mandate to negotiate.

Although Childers did not mention specific trade agreements, it seems likely that she had in mind at least the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that is being negotiated between the EU and the US against a background of considerable public opposition.

Negotiators have come under pressure from the public over the previously highly-secret nature of the negotiations that many believe would cede even more power to multinational corporations and undermine democracy.