TPP Toast After Heated Election

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Created: Monday, November 21 2016 20:50

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is dead, according to congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. The trade deal, which could have empowered corporations—including the alcohol industry—to sue sovereign governments and skirt regulations, will not be brought to a vote before the end of the current congressional session.

According to CNN, NY Sen. Chuck Schumer has already informed labor leaders there would be no deal, and this was confirmed publicly by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The outgoing Obama administration has expressed the desire to continue working to pass the agreement, but with public opposition from both President-elect Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, success seems unlikely.

“Taking TPP off the table removes a grave threat to alcohol-related public health legislation throughout the Pacific Rim,” Alcohol Justice Executive Director/CEO Bruce Lee Livingston said. “This electoral season succeeded in shining a light on the troubling flaws in this agreement. Any future agreements of this kind must be transparent, and must respect governments’ duties to protect the health of their citizens.”

"We want to thank the hundreds of Alcohol Justice members who responded to our action alerts over the past two years, sending letters of opposition to this really bad deal to the President, and congressional leaders," said Michael Scippa, Public Affairs Director at Alcohol Justice. "Citizen activitism works!"

SABMiller and AB Inbev Merger Casts Global Shadow

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Created: Thursday, October 27 2016 19:26

Call it Newbelco, call it the Beerhemoth, call it the biggest beer company the world has ever known—whatever you call it, the new megabrewer that formed on October 11, 2016, from the merger of AB Inbev and SABMiller will be a dominating source of global alcohol harm. AB Inbev and SABMiller were already the two largest beer producers in the world; together, they will represent annual sales of $55 billion or more. The post-merger transnational company now called Newbelco will be responsible for one in three beers sold worldwide.

As befits a global company, the threats from the merger to public health and governance are global in scale:

• The combined assets will greatly multiply Newbelco’s ability to engage in marketing, lobbying, and industry-slanted research.
• Newbelco intends to use economy of scale to build a strong presence in Africa, introducing low-cost alcohol to low-consumption areas. Without existing infrastructure to address prevention, regulation, and harm reduction, the effects could be catastrophic.
• Though antitrust actions forced Newbelco to divest some brands, those brands have been or will be quickly acquired by other international players in the beer market, such as Molson Coors and Asahi. Newbelco’s loss just empowers other massive alcohol makers to expand their reach and power.
• Both SABMiller and AB Inbev already have a reputation for wielding outsize influence at the national level. Less than a month ago, AB Inbev paid $6 million to settle charges stemming from bribery and whistleblower suppression in India. Meanwhile, critics of SABMiller are concerned they will be ungovernable in parts of South America, where many political figures have direct ties to the company.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Dr. Jeff Collin and colleagues of the University of Edinburgh note the strategic similarities between Newbelco and the tobacco industries. The survival of transnational tobacco companies like Altria and British American Tobacco hinges on exploiting regulatory gaps in the developing world to generate millions of new customers. (The guidelines for these strategies should already be familiar to Newbelco, since Altria Group will itself own a 10% share of the megabrewer.) Although international development guidelines forbid collaboration with tobacco companies, no such stipulation exists for the alcohol industry. Dr. Collin urges quick action to close that loophole and proactively confront Newbelco and other alcohol companies looking to flood emerging markets.

Whether or not the international health community reigns Newbelco in, the colossus may already have it's next move planned. Industry experts speculate the company may soon attempt to acquire sugared-beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola. After all, in a world where obesity, alcohol, and tobacco are among the most frequent causes of death from non-communicable disease, why shouldn't Newbelco-Altria-Coca-Cola profit from all three?