Tobacco Industry Expected to Issue Standards for Chinese-Style Cigarettes

Source from:  cnnb.com.cn 05/17/2005

The tobacco industry of China is expected to issue a set of standards governing the production of Chinese-style cigarettes by the end of 2005, in an effort to regulate the production of Chinese-style cigarettes, the provincial tobacco administration of east China's Zhejiang Province announced on May 11. The tobacco industry of China has defined Chinese-style cigarettes as cigarette products with distinctive characteristics of aroma and flavor manufactured with core technologies possessed by itself that are capable of meeting the current and potential demand of Chinese cigarette consumers, mainly including Chinese-style flue-cured-type and Chinese-style blend-type cigarettes, with Chinese-style flue-cured-type cigarettes taking the dominant position. In 2003, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) defined the development of Chinese-style cigarettes as a direction of China's tobacco industry. In remarks reported by Chinese news media, an official with Zhejiang Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration said that China, as a signatory nation to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), will formally start the implementation of the FCTC in five years. As a result, Chinese tobacco manufacturers will face the dual pressure of prohibition of tobacco advertising and price increases. For China's tobacco industry, the formulation of standards governing the production of Chinese-style cigarettes to technically erect barriers against competition will be an effective approach to counter competition from transnational tobacco giants, which have tried to gain greater access to markets in China since China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. "In 2003, the STMA formulated the strategy of researching and developing technologies for the production of Chinese-style cigarettes. So far, the tobacco industry of China has organized some research institutes and manufacturing enterprises to jointly research and develop technologies for the production of Chinese-style cigarettes, in order that Chinese-style cigarettes will be able to take a technological lead in competition against foreign rivals," the official with Zhejiang Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration said. It was reported that the research and development of technologies for producing Chinese-style cigarettes is mainly focused on the development and production of the so-called "reduced-harm" cigarettes with Chinese characteristics. China signed the FCTC in 2003, the first ever global public health treaty. The World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the FCTC on May 21, 2003. Enditem