Minutes - TRIPS Council - View details of the intervention/statement

Ambassador Federico A. González (Paraguay) (24-25 October) and Mr. Martin Glass (Hong Kong, China) (17 November)
N AUSTRALIA'S TOBACCO PLAIN PACKAGING BILL 2011
413. The representative of Norway said that public health in general, and tobacco control in particular, was a topic very dear to her delegation. Apart from implementing revisions to its tobacco policy, Norway was currently working on a new five-year tobacco-related strategy that would be implemented from 2012 to 2016. Her delegation was therefore very interested in, and supportive of, similar processes in other Members. The FCTC could make the greatest single contribution to preventing non-communicable diseases. Implementation by parties of the provisions of this international framework convention was a pressing public health issue. As most WTO Members were parties to this convention, her delegation did not see an inherent contradiction between regulating the use and presence of tobacco products and other international obligations. It was within the rights of each Member to regulate the health needs of its people. Article 8 of the TRIPS Agreement provided Members the flexibility to adopt measures necessary to protect public health and it was Norway's firm view that the FCTC and the WTO rights and obligations were mutually supportive. 414. Tobacco control policies and preventive measures such as the ones being proposed by Australia had the legitimate objective of protecting public health by reducing smoking. Article 11 in the FCTC and the accompanying guidelines explicitly mentioned plain packaging as one of the options for achieving this objective. Norway wished to signal clear support to Australia concerning the right to introduce plain packaging as a measure designed to fulfil its obligations under this international convention in order to protect public health. Her delegation trusted that Australia's legislation would be implemented in a way that complied with all their international treaty obligations. Norway would continue to follow this case with a very keen interest and was prepared to continue to defend the interests of public health while complying with all its international treaty obligations.
IP/C/M/67