Plain Packaging Laws Gaining Momentum Even Though WTO Won’t Rule On Dispute Until 2016
Thursday 19 February 2015 @ 11.01 a.m. | Legal Research
This week, The Guardian Australia reported that a collection of papers in the scientific journal Addiction “said that while standardised packs were still too new to provide substantial evidence, studies so far showed that they were likely to reduce smoking rates”. The papers come as countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and France are attempting to introduce their own laws. The editor-in-chief of Addiction, Robert West, told The Guardian that:
“Even if standardised packaging had no effect at all on current smokers and only stopped one in 20 young people from being lured into smoking (in the UK), it would save about 2,000 lives a year.”
Plain Packaging in the WTO
Meanwhile, Australia’s World Trade Organisation dispute is still ongoing. The WTO Panel announced last year that they were not looking to rule on the decision until early 2016. IP Watch reported in November that Australia has complained that the tobacco industry is attempting to capitalise on the length of the dispute by insisting that countries considering their own plain packaging laws wait until the dispute is settled. Australia has also raised concerns about members placing the topic on the agendas of other committees such as the TRIPS (Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights) Council and the TBT (Technical Barriers to Trade) Committee, saying this “appears to be creating a parallel process alongside the ongoing dispute settlement proceedings”.
Plain Packaging in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is currently considering introducing plain packaging, with Parliament set to vote on standardised packaging legislation before the May general election. BloombergBusiness reports that:
“The proposed rules in the U.K. specify mandatory colors for packaging -- dull brown for the outside, white for the inside -- and permit only specified text, such as the brand and type. The packs would continue to carry health warnings.”
Similarly to Australia, tobacco manufacturers in the United Kingdom have strongly objected to the move. A spokesman for Japan Tobacco Inc, (who make Camel and Silk Cut in the United Kingdom) told BloombergBusiness:
“It would deprive us of assets worth billions of pounds at a time when the U.K. economy appears to be turning the corner.”
Plain Packaging Elsewhere
Elsewhere, France is also considering introducing plain packaging legislation, with French Health Minister Marisol Touraine telling the Wall Street Journal that:
“In France, 13 million adults smoke every day, and it is getting worse… The number of smokers is growing, especially among young people.”
In response, Imperial Tobacco Group PLC said “[p]lain packaging amounts to theft of intellectual property and we will be reviewing our legal options”, and British American Tobacco PLC said it “puts the rest of the European Union at risk of trade wards and legal challenges at the World Trade Organization.”
Ireland is also pushing for the introduction of plain packaging laws with Forbes noting:
“children in Ireland start smoking at the age of 16.4 years. This is younger than the equivalent age for any other country in Europe. Seventy-eight percent of smokers start smoking before the age of 18. Smoking claims 5200 lives a year in Ireland.”
Last year, Ireland put forward the Public Health (Standardized Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2014. Objections to the bill were submitted by nine European Union countries (Italy, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain) who complained the law would potentially violate their right to trade. Ireland’s health minister, James Reilly, who introduced the bill, has resigned from cabinet, which Forbes said “is expected to cause delays in passing the bill, which Reilly had hoped to see passed by 2016.”
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