Dominican Republic requests the establishment of World Trade Organization panel over Australian plain packaging
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
Geneva, 17 December 2012 - Today, the Dominican Republic requested that the
Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) establish a WTO
panel to assess the WTO consistency of Australia's plain packaging measures for
tobacco products, which came into effect in Australia on 1 December 2012.
Australia initially blocked the establishment of the WTO panel but cannot block
the Dominican Republic's second request as per WTO rules.
Plain packaging represents a dramatic interference with trademarks, and a
restriction on international trade. Luis Manual Piantini, Ambassador of the
Dominican Republic to the WTO explains:
"We are proud of our tobacco products and especially our cigars which are among
the highest-quality smoking products and appreciated by millions of connoisseurs
around the world. We have strived to develop an industry that is a world leader,
and do not wish to see it undermined by speculative measures that will work to
undermine public health. We will fight to have the WTO rules applied fairly and
objectively to our developing economy."
"The Dominican Republic shares Australia's public health goals but plain
packaging will not be effective in achieving those goals. Its effect will
simply be to commoditize the tobacco market, with declining prices, and
increased consumption of tobacco and illicit trade as a result."
Full statement by the Dominican Republic:
1. Since the first day of this month, all tobacco products in Australia have
to be sold in plain packaging, and have to meet other stringent requirements.
Australia imposes these requirements through the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act
2011 and its implementing regulations.
2. The Dominican Republic held consultations with the Australian Government
on these plain packaging measures on 27 September 2012. Unfortunately, these
consultations failed to settle the dispute. In conformity with Article 6.2 of
the DSU, the Dominican Republic, therefore, requests that the Dispute Settlement
Body establish a panel to examine Australia's plain packaging measures in light
of its WTO obligations.
3. At the outset, the Dominican Republic wishes to emphasize that it shares
Australia's objective in seeking to protect human health. However, we are
unconvinced that these plain packaging measures are an effective instrument for
reducing consumption of tobacco products or indeed any other harmful product.
Rather, the plain packaging measures appear to violate Australia's obligations
under both the TRIPS Agreement and the TBT Agreement.
4. The plain packaging measures represent a dramatic regulatory intrusion
into the appearance of products that may be sold lawfully in Australia,
literally wiping design features off tobacco packaging and individual cigarettes
and cigars. These design features include trademarks and geographical
indications that Members have agreed to protect under the TRIPS Agreement, and
which serve the valuable purpose for both producers and consumers of
differentiating products that compete lawfully on the market in Australia.
5. Turning to the TBT Agreement, these plain packaging measures restrict
international trade by eliminating competitive opportunities for tobacco
products that are forced to appear in the marketplace in virtually identical
retail packaging.
6. The WTO system ensures that measures restricting core intellectual
property rights and international trade are permissible solely insofar they are
effective in serving a legitimate objective. Australia's plain packaging
measures do not meet this standard: they eviscerate the very function of
trademarks and geographical indications and destroy competitive opportunities
for tobacco products, with no credible evidence that they will reduce tobacco
prevalence. Indeed, the evidence shows that the plain packaging measures will
undermine Australia's goal to reduce tobacco prevalence. By commoditizing the
market for tobacco products, the measures will inflict price competition,
resulting in lower prices and higher consumption. Further, requiring products to
be sold in similar plain packaging will facilitate illicit trade.
7. The Dominican Republic has requested that, rather than introduce these
plain packaging measures, Australia employ tobacco control measures that would
be truly effective in reducing tobacco consumption and also consistent with its
WTO obligations. Unfortunately, Australia has proceeded to introduce its plain
packaging measures.
8. The Dominican Republic believes that this dispute has potential
repercussions for products besides tobacco that are considered harmful, such as
alcoholic beverages and processed food and beverages. Many governments wish to
control consumption of these products and could equally argue that consumption
will fall if they strip design features, including intellectual property, from
the retail packaging. Such dramatic interference with intellectual property,
and restrictions on trade, cannot be premised on speculative assumptions
regarding consumer behavior but must be rooted in robust scientific evidence.
9. In closing, the Dominican Republic wishes to reflect on the detrimental
impact of Australia's measures on small and vulnerable developing economies that
rely on the production and export of tobacco, and tobacco products, as part of
their development strategy. In the Dominican Republic, tobacco has been an
intrinsic part of our local culture and heritage for centuries.
10. In recent years, we have witnessed a considerable development success
story in our tobacco sector. Through significant investments by our producers,
we have transformed our industry from being an exporter of tobacco leaf to being
one of the world's premium producers of processed tobacco products, in
particular cigars. Indeed, today, the Dominican Republic is the world's largest
exporter of cigars.
11. We are proud of these achievements, and conscious also of the value of
such development to the employment and income of our population. We are
concerned that plain packaging will eradicate this cornerstone of our economy,
whilst failing to achieve Australia's health objectives.
12. For these reasons, the Dominican Republic requests the Dispute
Settlement Body to establish a panel to assess the consistency of the plain
packaging requirements with Australia's WTO obligations.
About the Dominican tobacco industry
While tobacco has been cultivated in the Dominican Republic for more than five
centuries, the Dominican tobacco industry is a hundred years old. Tobacco export
revenues represent 5% of total exports. Tobacco products represent 8.5% of
fiscal revenue on merchandise taxation. There are around 5,500 tobacco
producers, employing approximately 45,000 agricultural workers. Combined with
the entire tobacco production chain, the industry generates around direct
118,000 jobs which supports approximately 350,000 people, according to
information published by the Tobacco Institute of the Dominican Republic. The
Dominican Republic is the largest exporter of cigars in the world.
ENDS
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Datum: 17.12.2012 - 18:03 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 213490
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