It’s often said that the world has become a global village but in fact we are now living in a corporate world — a place manipulated by multi-nationals for their petty interests. Take the case of a South American tiny country, Uruguay, which has been brought to World Bank court as a guilty party. Uruguayan government has been sued by the Swiss tobacco giant, Philip Morris, for having harsh anti-smoking laws which are clearly impacting its business. It has blamed the Uruguayan government of violating intellectual property rights by not permitting good enough space on cigarette packs for the display of its trademarks.
In fact Philip Morris is upset on graphic labelling of the packs showing photos of decaying teeth, blanked lungs, premature babies and other gruesome hospital scenes. Such photos are now covering 80 per cent of the packaging. Since 2009 when the government increased the spacing percentage of photos depicting negative aspects of smoking from 50 to 80, there is consistent drop in smokers all across the country. Studies show that fewer pregnant women were smoking, resulting in increased birth rate. Philip is also upset on Uruguayan government orders to sell the cigarettes by the brand name only, not allowing it to use deceiving titles such as ‘light’ and ‘gold’. It’s proved that so-called ‘light’ and ‘gold’ brands are as injurious to health as normal brands. Though company is suing the government for just $25 million but it’s understood that it’s just a token penalty. Company wants to set the precedent to pursue pending cases in large markets such as Australia, France and other European countries.
It’s a quite scary scenario: a single company with a product which kills beyond any doubt could succeed in defeating the laws made to protect general public. It’s often blamed that World Bank courts generally take sides with corporations, but this is an entirely different case which could result in devastating consequences for public health legislations.
It’s a case of Big Corp against general public; fingers crossed, let’s wait who wins — killers or those intend to be killed.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia