Vote expected in U.K. on plain packaging for cigarettes

The latest government attempt at plain cigarette packaging in the United Kingdom is sparking a fierce response from two British tobacco manufacturers. However, industry analysts and marketing officials said Friday they doubt there will be a spillover effect in the United States despite a similar push by anti-tobacco groups.

According to several UK media reports, Parliament members are expected to vote on plain packaging by March 30. The initiative is based primarily on regulations enacted in Australia in 2012 that have produced mixed results to date. If the British proposal is enacted, it would go into effect in May 2016. It would ban brightly colored packs and require packs to be uniform in size, shape and design and to carry large picture health warnings.

British health minister Jane Ellison said plain packaging was a "proportionate and justified response" because of the health risks associated with smoking, according to The Guardian newspaper.

British American Tobacco Pic, owner of 42 percent of Reynolds American Inc., said the plain packaging proposal "is a serious error of judgment given the clear evidence from Australia that plain packaging has not achieved any of its public health objectives and has increased illicit trade to its highest level in seven years."

The main plain-packing arguments expressed by Australia government leaders are that the packaging would help reduce overall smoking rates, reduce youth smoking rates and increase the effectiveness of health warnings. According to media reports, youth smoking rates have risen in Australia since 2012 and overall smoking rates have been flat.

A similar plain packaging proposal has been pushed among U.S. anti-tobacco advocates and Food and Drug Administration officials since 2009. However, advocates' biggest goal - requiring graphic warning labels on the top half of packs - has been stuck in neutral for nearly two years. Two separate federal courts are split on whether graphic warning labels violate tobacco companies' free-speech rights under the First Amendment.

U.S. tobacco companies increasingly rely on cigarette packaging to build brand loyalty and grab consumers - one of the few advertising avenues left to them after the government curbed their presence in magazines, billboards and TV They argue the proposed warnings went beyond factual information into anti-smoking advocacy.

Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd. has agreed to spend $7.1 billion to buy all of Lorillard Inc.'s operations outside its Newport brand in a three-way deal involving Reynolds, the maker of Camel Black cigarettes. Imperial offered similar comments to BAT on the plain packaging proposal, saying "it is regrettable that this issue has been caught up in knee-jerk electioneering at the expense of evidence-based policy making."

Now Cameron aide Lynton Crosby’s links to fracking industry are explored

David Cameron came under renewed pressure to sack his party’s elections adviser Lynton Crosby on Sunday night as environmental activists expressed concern about his links to the fracking industry.

Mr Crosby’s lobbying firm, Crosby Textor, represents the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, an oil and gas lobby group campaigning aggressively for fracking. The association’s chief operating officer, Stedman Ellis, has made headlines in recent months for his outspoken criticism of anti-fracking campaigners, telling one Australian paper: “The opportunity provided by shale gas is too important to be jeopardised by political scare campaigns run by activist groups.”

The association’s members include Dart, the company behind coal-bed methane extraction in Scotland, which holds a fracking licence. George Osborne announced tax breaks for the oil and gas industry just weeks after Mr Crosby’s appointment as a Conservative adviser was announced.

Labour will attempt tomorrow to exploit the Tories’ discomfort over their links to Lynton Crosby with a series of amendments to Coalition plans to bring in a statutory register of lobbyists.

The moves follow the disclosure that Mr Crosby’s company is employed by the tobacco giant Philip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes. Questions have been asked about his role in the decision to shelve Government plans to require tobacco products to be sold in plain packaging.

Labour claimed yesterday that Mr Crosby chaired a meeting last year at which tobacco industry executives discussed how to block plans to force cigarettes to be sold in plain packets. The party alleged the session took place before Christmas, shortly before Mr Crosby was recruited to advise the Conservatives on election strategy.  Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said yesterday: “This is beginning to stink as bad as an old ashtray.”

Plain Cigarette Packaging in European Countries

Last month, Ireland became the first European country to agree a ban on all branding on cigarette packs in favor of plain packaging and uniform labeling, following the example of Australia.

While the EU proposals stop short of a full ban on branding, ministers agreed that countries such as Ireland should be free to impose plain packaging if they choose.

The proposals must also get the approval of the European Parliament before becoming law, and the lawmaker leading the debate in the assembly has called for a total ban on branding.

Friday's agreement means the rules could be finalized before the start of European Parliament elections next May, allowing them to enter force in 2016.

The draft rules have been in development for more than two years and were the focus of intense lobbying by the tobacco industry.

They played a part in the October resignation of former EU Health Commissioner John Dalli, after one of his associates was accused of seeking bribes from Swedish Match, a producer of moist oral-snuff known as "snus", in return for lifting a sales ban on the product outside Sweden.

Under the agreement, the sale of snus would remain illegal across the EU except in Sweden. But a proposal that would have forced snus producers to reformulate their products to remove distinctive flavorings was dropped.

As concerns grow over the unregulated use of increasingly popular electronic cigarettes, ministers tightened proposed controls by agreeing that those containing 1 milligram (mg) of nicotine or more would be classified as medicinal products requiring prior EU marketing approval.

That also applied to e-cigarettes containing 2 mg or more per milliliter for those that mix nicotine with water.