New Zealand to Introduce Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products

Source from:  New Zealand Herald 02/21/2013

The Government is to go ahead with its plan to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products.

Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia said the Government would push ahead with its plans despite the threat of a similar legal challenge as one Australia has faced since introducing unbranded, standardised cigarette packets with large health warnings.
 
"We know we've got trade obligations. But we are confident plain packaging can be introduced with those."
 
Mrs Turia said the Health Ministry would begin policy work around the plans immediately.
 
Regulations to implement plain packaging would occur once World Trade Organisation legal challenges were concluded.
 
Mrs Turia said she expected the WTO case to be completed within 12 to 18 months.
 
"It won't take years and years. We know that we've got trade obligations and we take them seriously... but we are confident that plain packaging can be introduced consistently with those obligations."

New Zealanders could expect plain packs on shelves next year.
 
Government would probably still face legal action even if Australia defeated its challenges, Mrs Turia said.
 
But the minister felt the risk would be greatly reduced if Australia won its cases against the tobacco giants.
 
Any legal challenge could cost between $3 million and $6 million of taxpayer money to defend.
 
Mrs Turia described the decision to proceed with plain packaging as "a great day for New Zealand".
 
"The move to plain packaging would make more explicit what tobacco is - a product which kills 5000 New Zealanders a year.
 
"[It] will remove the last remaining vestige of glamour from these deadly products."
 
Skye Kimura, the tobacco control advisor for the Cancer Society, said the proposal was a "major step".
 
"No longer will tobacco products be decorated with desirable colours and prominent branding - future plain packaging, with large graphic warnings, will depict the reality instead," Kimura said.
 
"Our major aim in tobacco control is to protect our children. Tobacco companies will no longer be able to advertise on their products and build brand loyalty in future generations." Enditem