‘We need world support’ as Australia presses for plain tobacco packaging

Published on Friday 7 October 2011 00:54

AUSTRALIA’S government has urged other countries to shun the advances of big tobacco companies looking to block the country’s proposals for some of the toughest anti-smoking laws in the world.

The legislation, which is being watched by governments worldwide, would see retailers forced to sell cigarettes in plain packaging. Health minister Nicola Roxon said the minority government was bracing itself not just for a legal challenge but also an intellectual property dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

“A tobacco company themselves can’t bring a claim in the WTO. A state has to do that,” Ms Roxon explained.

“I won’t be surprised if tobacco companies are out there looking for a country to claim on their behalf, and we urge countries not to do that.”

The developments are being monitored closely watched by Britain and the wider European Union, New Zealand and Canada, where similar restrictions are being considered.

The plan has infuriated tobacco firms including Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco, which have threatened a High Court challenge. Tobacco-producing nations including Nicaragua, Kenya and Ukraine say the measures breach global trade rules.

Despite political unease at home over potential compensation claims that tobacco companies have said could mount to billions of dollars, Ms Roxon has been a passionate advocate for the laws within the Labour government. Her father died from esophageal cancer.

“Big tobacco companies do have big tentacles that reach far and wide across the world. I’ve made very clear to my international colleagues that they need to look at this not only from a health perspective, but from a trade perspective,” Ms Roxon said.

Australia says the new laws reflect its obligations under the World Health Organisation’s 2005 framework against tobacco, which urges states to consider plain packaging laws. The body estimates that more than 1 billion people around the world are regular smokers, with 80 per cent in low and middle income countries.

Industry analysts say tobacco companies are worried that plain packaging laws could spread to emerging markets like Brazil, Russia and Indonesia, and threaten growth there.

In Britain, tobacco companies have been fighting in the courts for the right to sell cigarettes in vending machines, while tobacco companies in the US are challenging more graphic health warnings on cigarette packets, claiming the changes violate their right of free speech.

An Australia parliamentary committee looking into the legislation and possible grounds for a legal contest received submissions from as far afield as Europe and Kenya, and even cigarette retailers in Peru and Rio de Janeiro.

“We don’t know how much [tobacco firms] seek to influence other players, but we certainly become suspicious when you see comments made by people apparently completely disconnected to Australia … when the lines are exactly reflecting – almost parroting – tobacco companies,” Ms Roxon said.