NZ takes first step towards imposing standardized packs on tobacco

Legislation requiring that tobacco products are sold in standardized packs in New Zealand will start making its way through parliament in 2014, but won’t pass into law until legal action in Australia has been settled, according to a Radio New Zealand story.

Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia introduced the Smoke-free Environments (Tobacco Products and Packaging) Amendment Bill to parliament today.

The law change would require tobacco products to be sold in packs of standardised design with large health warnings.

Turia said Australia’s plain packaging regime was still subject to World Trade Organization challenges.

However, she said she wanted to get the NZ legislative process underway.

Meanwhile, Turia said she would be extremely annoyed if the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which is still under negotiation, made it harder to fight off legal challenges to standardized pack legislation.

Some critics of the deal believe this to be the case, but Turia said she hadn’t been given any information to suggest that the final deal would compromise the ability to defend standardized packaging.