Britain Plans Plain Cigarette Packaging Starting in May 2016

Source from:  Timaru Herald 01/23/2015

Cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco will have to be sold in standardised packs in England starting in May next year, the British government announced, bringing the country into line with practice in Australia.

Parliament will be asked to pass the relevant legislation before May's general election, Public Health Minister Jane Ellison said in a statement late on Wednesday (local time).

The extension of tobacco plain packaging beyond Australia, where it was implemented in December 2012, threatens a US$783 billion (NZ$1.04 trillion) industry that's already grappling with declining smoking rates and the introduction of e-cigarettes. The legality of removing brand imagery is still in question, with challenges moving through the World Trade Organization. France, New Zealand and Ireland have said they want similar legislation, yet most countries have held off, awaiting the WTO ruling.

Britain's proposed rules specify mandatory colors for packaging - dull brown for the outside, white for the inside - and permit only specified text, such as the brand and type. The packs would continue to carry health warnings.

"It's an election year and plain packaging has taken on political football status," said James Bushnell, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in London. "Amid all the rhetoric, plain packaging implementation is yet to reach the acid test. Once the UK government passes legislation, it is likely the tobacco companies will sue."

Imperial Tobacco, the largest cigarette maker whose brands include Davidoff, is "very surprised and disappointed", spokesman Simon Evans said by email.

Five countries, including Honduras and Indonesia, have opposed Australia's plain-packaging rules, filing various disputes with WTO committees. The opponents argue that the law imposes restrictions on the use of trademarks, geographic indications and other markings in violation of international trade rules. Australian trade officials said at a November 18 WTO meeting that those challenges "instill a form of regulatory chill, which is a well-known tactic of the tobacco industry to avoid countries implementing tobacco control measures."

The WTO decision isn't expected until the second half of 2016, yet Britain is plowing ahead.

"The policy is a proportionate and justified response to the considerable public-health harm from smoking tobacco," Ellison, the British minister, said in the statement. "Almost 80,000 people in England alone die every year from ill health caused by smoking. It places an enormous strain" on the state- funded National Health Service.

Pediatrician Cyril Chantler, who conducted a review of standardised packaging for the British government, said last year it was likely it would lead to "a modest, but important reduction" in the uptake and prevalence of smoking in Britain.

Britain's smoking rate has fallen below 20 per cent, the lowest in 80 years, scientists at University College London said last year. Across Europe, a third of people smoke.

The British government has responsibility for health care only in England, the largest of the four nations making up Britain, so ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be asked to give consent to applying the same regulations. Litigation may delay implementation, Exane's Bushnell said.

Since Australia introduced uniform cigarette packaging in 2012, results have been mixed. The 2013 Australia National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that daily smoking among people aged 14 and older declined from 15.1 per cent in 2010 to 12.8 per cent. Yet 3.4 per cent of people ages 12 to 17 said they smoked daily in 2013, up from 2.5 per cent in 2010.

A study by the Universities of Zurich and Saarland, funded by Philip Morris International Inc. and released last year, found no evidence that plain packaging affected youth smoking prevalence. The academics surveyed 41,438 youths aged 14 to 17 between January 2001 and December 2013. Tobacco companies also say that plain packaging leads to an increase in illicit smokes.

"The data from Australia do not support plain packaging as a way to reduce smoking prevalence," said Erik Bloomquist, an analyst at Berenberg, adding that the policy will be challenged in the European Union.

His comments were echoed by Imperial Tobacco's Evans. "More than two years into the failed plain packaging experiment in Australia there's simply no reason to think it will work," Evans said.

According to a BAT statement, the move is a "serious error of judgment" given that evidence from Australia shows plain packaging hasn't achieved its public health objectives and has led to an increase in illicit trade.

Japan Tobacco Inc., the maker of Camel and Silk Cut in the UK, said it considers plain packaging would be unlawful.

"It would deprive us of assets worth billions of pounds at a time when the UK economy appears to be turning the corner," spokesman Jeremy Blackburn said by email. Enditem