New Zealand to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes

PanARMENIAN.Net - Tobacco companies will be forced to remove their logos from cigarette packs in New Zealand - when a challenge to a similar move in Australia is resolved, according to Belfast Telegraph.

The packaging law "will remove the last remaining vestige of glamour from these deadly products", associate minister of health Tariana Turia said, announcing the plan.

New Zealand already has strict laws on smoking, making retailers hide packs below the counter, while cigarette taxes have been increased.

The new legislation would be similar to an Australian law that took effect in December and replaced logos on packs with graphic warnings including cancer-riddled mouths. The proposed law could be introduced in parliament later this year to take effect when the legal case over Australia's move ends - next year at the earliest.

Tobacco companies lost a legal challenge in Australia's highest court last year, but the World Trade Organisation has agreed to hear a complaint about it from several tobacco-growing countries led by the Ukraine.

The Ukraine, Zimbabwe, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Indonesia argued that governments should pursue health policies "without unnecessarily restricting international trade and without nullifying intellectual property rights".