Critics of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal warn about arbitration clause

The LA Times: When Australia began prohibiting brand logos and requiring grim pictures of smoking-borne diseases on cigarette packs, tobacco giant Philip Morris fired back using a novel tactic.

It turned to an obscure dispute-arbitration clause in a 1993 trade agreement between Australia and Hong Kong to argue that the Australian government's new public-health law amounted to discrimination and an expropriation of a foreign investment. Read more.