Tobacco Products in WTO Law (original) (raw)
Related papers
The TBT Agreement and Tobacco Control Regulations
Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy, 2013
The article analyses reports issued by the panel and the Appellate Body in the US – Measures Affecting the Productions and Sale of Clove Cigarettes dispute and attempts to assess their broader consequences for national tobacco control policies. Both reports are particularly important because they clarify the limits existing under WTO law, in particular the TBT Agreement, in this policy space. In this context, the article investigates whether the WTO dispute settlement bodies interpreted relevant rules of the TBT Agreement in a manner that provides countries with sufficient regulatory autonomy while ensuring at the same time that their technical measures do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. It also examines the potential impact of standards established in these reports on other tobacco control measures that are either currently discussed in the TBT Committee (e.g., Canadian and Brazilian restrictions on the content of cigarettes) or already challenged in the formal WTO dispute settlement process (i.e. Australian plain packaging law).
Tobacco and international trade: recent activities of the FCTC Conference of the Parties
Journal of World Trade, 2015
The article analyzes three recent proposals made by the State-Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which appears to be relevant for determining the relationship between trade and health rules in the area of tobacco control. In this context, it attempts to answer the following questions: (i) what is the legal status of decisions made by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the FCTC?; (ii) how does a COP decision (or any applicable provision of the FCTC) affect the mandate of WTO dispute settlement bodies to hear and decide WTO cases?; and (iii) to what extent can a COP decision (or any applicable provision of the Convention) require FCTC State-Parties to exclude tobacco and tobacco products from their future preferential trade agreements (PTAs). The article comes to the conclusion that COP decisions lack of any binding character, while provisions of the Convention do not affect the jurisdiction of WTO panels to hear complaints concerning potential violations of WTO law nor require carving out tobacco products from PTAs.
The New Tobacco Products Directive and WTO Law: Much Ado About Nothing?
Asian Journal of WTO & International Health and Policy, 2015
The article analyses the compatibility of various regulatory mechanisms provided by the new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) with the requirements of WTO law, in particular those included in the TBT and TRIPS Agreements. After introducing basic provisions of the directive and summarizing the concerns raised by some WTO Members during meetings of the TBT Committee and the TRIPS Council, the article discusses in more detail the merits of those claims. It finds that concerns expressed by the WTO Members are generally overstated, as most TPD provisions, except for the temporal menthol exception, are WTO-compatible. The article also notes that significance of its conclusions goes beyond the specific context of the EU measure. The TPD introduces many progressive regulatory solutions which, although not being entirely original, are still at the forefront of contemporary tobacco control policies and will be adopted in the future in other jurisdictions. On that basis, the article concludes that WTO law, while imposing certain standards, generally does not stand against genuine tobacco control policies that are adopted in a non-discriminatory manner.
Trade law and tobacco: plain sailing
TradeLinks, 2019
The blogpost analyzes the panel report in Australia — Certain Measures Concerning Trademarks, Geographical Indications and Other Plain Packaging Requirements Applicable to Tobacco Products and Packaging. In this context, it addresses two issues: (i) the role that is played by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – an international agreement that sets global standards for national tobacco control policies – in the context of WTO law, and (ii) the extent of trademark protections provided by the WTO TRIPS Agreement.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as an International Standard under the TBT Agreement
Transnational Dispute Management, 2012
In this article Lukasz Gruszczynski argues that there are good grounds for considering the Guidelines to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (‘FCTC’) relevant international standards under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (‘TBT Agreement’). The structure of the article is as follows: Part I provides an overview of the relevant sections of the TBT Agreement and its ambiguities with respect to defining an international standard; Part II sets out the aims, purpose and governance structure of the FCTC; In light of the overviews of the TBT Agreement and the FCTC, Part III then considers whether the FCTC and its Guidelines are likely to satisfy criteria developed by relevant World Trade Organization (‘WTO’) jurisprudence regarding what constitutes an international standard under the TBT Agreement; and, finally Part IV draws out the significance of having the FCTC/Guidelines recognised as an international standard under the TBT Agreement.
2015
Abstract: This article aims to give a glimpse at the potential impact of international trade and investment agreements on tobacco control regulations, especially on plain and large pictorial warnings packaging. To accomplish it, we describe the most important trade and investment agreements, and highlighting the provisions that were used or could be used by corporations to challenge tobacco control policies. In addition, we summarize the principal characteristics of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which is the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) with the goal of confronting the challenges that the globalized economy has imposed to national regulations. Keywords: Tobacco control policies – international trade and investment agreements – Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – Latin America Resumen: El objetivo del articulo es proveer una aproximacion inicial al tema del impacto potencial que los acuerdos internaciona...
Czech Yearbook of International Law - Regulatory Measures and Foreign Trade - 2013, 2013
Plain packaging is the WHO’s new concept to fight the global tobacco epidemic. Already adopted in Australia, other countries are certain to follow and are already evaluating its introduction. However, plain packaging is not as carefree and unproblematic as the WHO considers it to be. The idea of dictating to tobacco producers the way they must present their product provokes heavy protest on political and legal levels. This article analyses the compatibility of plain packaging with WTO-law.
Tobacco control and trade policy: Proactive strategies for integrating policy norms
Journal of public health policy, 2012
Palpable tension continues at the intersection of tobacco control and trade policy. Through consideration of four major tobacco control-related trade disputes, we suggest how to empower public health proponents in the face of entrenched economic policymaking norms. We argue that a more effective protobacco control message should: (a) seek to be broadly consistent with core principles of the world trading system, (b) boldly assert countries' international commitments to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, (c) marshal deep scientific evidence, and (d) come from a broad range of actors, including from low-and middle-income countries as well as from other trade policy community members.