I. Measures to control tobacco in the framework of the World Trade Organization
1. Trans-boundary tobacco control and The General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade 1994
Under the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade 1994 (‘GATT 1994’), the exportation and importation of tobacco products among the World Trade Organization (‘WTO’) members are operated within the framework of the following strict principles:
(i) Non-discrimination: Principles of non-discrimination are composed of Most Favoured-Nation Treatment (‘MFN treatment’) and National Treatment which are regulated in Articles I and III of the GATT 1994, respectively. Accordingly, under the principle of MFN treatment, WTO members must ensure that their treatments for an imported product …show more content…
(iii) Schedules of Concessions: All WTO members have to commit their import taxes and duties in its schedule of concession and do not apply higher taxes and duties than that schedule.
However, by Article XX, the GATT 1994 establishes a breathing room for WTO members to impose higher import taxes than their commitments in the schedules of concessions or quantitative barriers on imported products from all other WTO members as follows:
Subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international trade, nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement by any contracting party of measures:
(a) necessary to protect public morals;
(b) necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or …show more content…
In addition, the compatibility between the general exception under Article XX(b) and tobacco control measures was affirmed by the Panel in Thailand – Restrictions on Important, Internal Sale and Use of Tobacco in 1990, under the framework of the General Agreement of Tariffs in Trade 1947 (‘GATT 1947’). The Panel found that ‘smoking was the cause of a serious harm to human health and therefore, measure designed to reduce the consumption of cigarettes fell within the scope of Article XX(b)’. Moreover, the World Health Organization (‘WHO’) sees tobacco use as a one of the biggest threat to human health that the world is facing. Accordingly, tobacco use is the cause of death of over six million people annually, with five million of that figure dying as a consequence of direct-tobacco use and more than six hundred thousand dying as victims of second-hand
1. Trans-boundary tobacco control and The General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade 1994
Under the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade 1994 (‘GATT 1994’), the exportation and importation of tobacco products among the World Trade Organization (‘WTO’) members are operated within the framework of the following strict principles:
(i) Non-discrimination: Principles of non-discrimination are composed of Most Favoured-Nation Treatment (‘MFN treatment’) and National Treatment which are regulated in Articles I and III of the GATT 1994, respectively. Accordingly, under the principle of MFN treatment, WTO members must ensure that their treatments for an imported product …show more content…
(iii) Schedules of Concessions: All WTO members have to commit their import taxes and duties in its schedule of concession and do not apply higher taxes and duties than that schedule.
However, by Article XX, the GATT 1994 establishes a breathing room for WTO members to impose higher import taxes than their commitments in the schedules of concessions or quantitative barriers on imported products from all other WTO members as follows:
Subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international trade, nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement by any contracting party of measures:
(a) necessary to protect public morals;
(b) necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or …show more content…
In addition, the compatibility between the general exception under Article XX(b) and tobacco control measures was affirmed by the Panel in Thailand – Restrictions on Important, Internal Sale and Use of Tobacco in 1990, under the framework of the General Agreement of Tariffs in Trade 1947 (‘GATT 1947’). The Panel found that ‘smoking was the cause of a serious harm to human health and therefore, measure designed to reduce the consumption of cigarettes fell within the scope of Article XX(b)’. Moreover, the World Health Organization (‘WHO’) sees tobacco use as a one of the biggest threat to human health that the world is facing. Accordingly, tobacco use is the cause of death of over six million people annually, with five million of that figure dying as a consequence of direct-tobacco use and more than six hundred thousand dying as victims of second-hand