Author: Staff Writer

Cuba has accused the U.K. of being anti-capitalist and threatening free trade with its plans to introduce standardized packaging for cigarettes and cigars, according to a story on The Telegraph Online.

In a letter to the World Trade Organization, the country said it recognized the U.K.’s right to apply measures aimed at protecting the health of its people, while recognizing also that tobacco was a harmful but lawful product in international trade.

It said that standardized packaging would lead to an increase in counterfeit cigarettes by preventing manufacturers displaying their products’ distinctive trademarks.

And it said it believed that such a move would increase health risks to those people who smoked black-market cigarettes containing unknown substances, though it wasn’t clear how it could be known that health risks would be increased if the substances were unknown.

Cuba also said the U.K. move would impose unnecessary restrictions on international trade and undermined the provisions of international trademark legislation.

The letter, to the WTO’s Committee to Technical Barriers on Trade, concluded by expressing concern over the U.K. parliament’s decision to move ahead with the process of implementation of standardized packaging of tobacco products without waiting for a settlement of the complaint against Australia, which is being processed by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body.

Thailand’s Public Health Ministry plans to push through legislation to drag e-cigarettes under existing laws controlling the sale of tobacco cigarettes, according to a story in The Nation.

The move seems to be a step forward for e-cigarettes, which have been banned in Thailand for about five years but, nevertheless, have been growing in popularity.

Dr. Nopporn Cheunklin, deputy chief of the Public Health Ministry’s Disease Control Department, said that since e-cigarettes were popular despite being prohibited, the ministry had decided to draft a law and put them under the same controls as were applied to traditional cigarettes and other tobacco products.

The draft of the new law is due to be sent to parliament for consideration “soon.”

British American Tobacco expects compliance with the new European Commission’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) to cost it between €100 million and €200 million during the next two years as it alters machinery to meet new packaging rules, according to a Reuters story.

The TPD—directive 2014/40/EU of April 3, 2014—which governs the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the member states concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on April 29. It repeals Directive 2001/37/EC.

The new directive is due to enter into force on May 20, and member states are required to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the directive by May 20, 2016.

However, member states may allow tobacco products, which are not in compliance with the new directive but which are manufactured in accordance with the previous directive and distributed before May 20, 2016, to be placed on the market until May 20, 2017.

Imperial Tobacco is due tomorrow to host a live webcast of the release of its first-half results.

The live webcast and the slides of a presentation to analysts and investors will be made available at http://www.imperial-tobacco.com from 8:50 a.m. U.K. time on May 7.

The presentation transcript will be available on the same site from 10 a.m.

Municipal Police in Prague have apparently fined a man dressed as a slice of pizza for smoking a cigarette in a public transportation station, according to a Prague Post story.

Smoking is forbidden at metro and tram stops, as well as on all public transportation. Photographer and local resident Stefan Berec posted a picture of the incident on Facebook and it has been making the rounds.

Details were said to be sketchy, but it seems that the person, know only as “the slice,” was employed to hand out menus for a local restaurant.

He was apparently spotted by the police while taking a break in an out-of-the-way area of the station.

According to the Post, the photographer said that the police had “held the slice for a while, as the pizza was being uncooperative.”

China’s customs and tobacco authorities destroyed 375,890 cartons of smuggled cigarettes said to be “worth” CNY22 million (US$3.6 million) in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong, on Tuesday, according to a China Radio International report.

The cigarettes were said to have included more than 30 brands, including Marlboro, 555 and Double Happiness.

They were shredded and then burned at a local power plant.

Unnamed officials were quoted as saying the destruction of the cigarettes illustrated China’s firm stance in abiding by the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

It also showed the country’s achievements in cracking down on the illegal trade in tobacco, they said.

Meanwhile, the vice minister of the General Administration of Customs, Lv Bin, said China had stepped up its fight against tobacco smuggling. Nationwide last year, 34 cases of smuggling involving 1.84 billion cigarettes “worth” CNY2.33 billion had been cracked.

He warned that cigarette smuggling would continue because it offered high levels of profit, but said that Chinese authorities would continue their crackdown on the trade.

The EU’s new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), which was published on April 29, has come in for some criticism, and could come in for more.

Ewald Stadler, an Austrian member of the European Parliament, has asked the European Commission for information about what were the costs incurred by the TPD trilogue negotiations.

In a preamble to four questions, Stadler said that the TPD had been debated and amended in seven committees in the European Parliament during 2013. The parliament had adopted its position in October last year and had then embarked on the trilogue negotiations—informal meetings convened between a select number of representatives from the European Council, the parliament and the commission.

Stadler went on to ask:

1.    “What was the total amount of human and material resources required during the trilogue negotiations?

2.    “What were the costs for translation?

3.    “What were the costs for meeting rooms?

4.    “What were the costs for the staff present and services provided by technicians and third parties, such as drinks during the negotiations?”

Flue-cured seems to be selling fast at auctions in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

According to a story in the most recent issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter, at the same stage of the 2013 and 2014 selling seasons, 22.58 million kg and 43.56 million kg had been sold respectively, so volume sales were up by more than 92 percent.

Almost 65 percent of the flue-cured sold so far this season has comprised bright grades, and the average price for all grades stands at INR121.0 per kg.

Auctions for the authorized Andhra crop of 172 million kg began on Feb. 17.

E-cigarettes could be banned from enclosed public places in France after the country’s health minister recently reiterated her desire to tighten the laws around the use of these devices, according to a story in The Local.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine has previously given hints that she intended to introduce a law to crack down on the use of e-cigarettes, but now she has made her intentions clear.

“I am favorable to the banning [of e-cigarettes] in a certain number of public places where there are many people or where there are children or young people present,” Touraine said.

The minister said also she wanted certain outdoor public spaces to be declared completely tobacco-free by local mayors.

Her proposals will become clear when they are included as part of the next public health bill, set to be published this summer.

Currently people can use e-cigarettes in bars and restaurants, where traditional smoking is banned.

And employers have discretion as to whether or not to allow the use of e-cigarettes by employees in the workplace.

Health officials have considered banning the use of e-cigarettes in enclosed public places in England, according to a story in The Independent quoting “documents from a recent board meeting.”

The suggestion, said to have been one of a number of options raised at a Public Health England (PHE) meeting in February, proposed prohibiting e-cigarette use in “workplaces, educational and public places to ensure their use did not undermine smoking prevention and cessation by reinforcing and normalising smoking.”

But PHE says that it has not called for a ban, and is still considering options.

“We have not called for a ban on e-cigarette use in public spaces,” said professor Kevin Fenton, PHE’s national director health and well-being.

“PHE is working with our partners to consider the options for supporting safe use of e-cigarettes to reduce harm and support smokers to quit, some of which were discussed by our board in February.”