Over the past 50 years, corporations, trade associations and other entities representing corporate interests have invested increasing resources into influencing public policies to protect their bottom line, and have gained increasing legitimacy in policymaking spaces. But beneath a veneer of technical expertise, these trade associations represent the interests of their corporate members, even when they are at odds with the public interest: public health, human rights, and good governance itself. And because of the massive power amassed by transnational corporations, they are often able to capture policymaking processes and bodies, swaying the outcomes in their favor no matter the costs to a country, its people, or the environment.
