烟草在线据邮报在线报道编译　　南部非洲各国反对实施力度更大的迫使它们推行烟草产品平装的烟草立法。

　　南非烟草协会（TISA）的首席执行官费朗索瓦·凡·德尔·莫威说，包括赞比亚在内的各国，对日益增长的推行侵犯现行合法商标的卷烟包装立法的发展趋势感到担忧。

　　乌克兰和洪都拉斯正在恢复一项在世界贸易组织提出的争端，这项争端对澳大利亚推行关于烟草产品外观与包装的所谓“平装”要求的法律提出了投诉。

　　澳大利亚的这项立法将重要的商标限制也列入其中，还要求烟草产品以在烟盒正反面都带有大幅图片健康警语的标准橄榄绿包装出售。

　　但凡·德尔·莫威说：“任何通过限制合法产品的商标权，超出了教育公众关于烟草危险性的必要措施，都有在未来数年内，引起很多非预期后果的风险。”

　　他说：“极端的立法，例如像澳大利亚的标准化包装的立法，将使得区分烟草产品变得困难，使假冒变得更容易，从而导致非法贸易进一步增加。”

　　他解释说，烟草产品非法贸易已经在南非地区占有相当大的比例，给整个烟草价值链的所有利益相关方造成了影响。

　　凡·德尔·莫威说：“因没有以证据和科学为基础，没有进行过全面磋商和意见征询的极端立法而造成的非法贸易的增加，将会对这个地区的各国带来灾难性的负面后果。”

　　“南部非洲发展共同体成员国津巴布韦、赞比亚和马拉维都表达了围绕极端烟草包装立法影响的担忧，这三个国家都已经通知世界贸易组织，它们有兴趣成为乌克兰提出的关于烟草平装争端的第三方。这一立场是基于烟草对它们各自国家经济的贡献，正是这一点，使它们拒绝成为其结果将影响它们的经济的国际论坛的沉默参会国和毫无影响力的谈判方。”

　　去年12月，澳大利亚推行了烟草平装，而在澳大利亚的大烟草公司打输了对这项立法提出的诉讼官司后，反吸烟施压组织也进行了策动，以使非洲国家推行这项卷烟平装法。

　　在南部非洲发展共同体（SADC）的15个成员国中，有6个国家种植烟草，其中包含赞比亚。而在所有5个种植烟草的成员国中，烟草是重要的出口创汇作物，对这些国家的国内生产总值有着重要的贡献，贡献率达3%至10%。

Zambia, Zim and Malawi Oppose Stiffer Legislation on Tobacco

　　SOUTHERN African countries have opposed stiffer tobacco legislation to compel them to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products.

　　Francois van der Merwe, chief executive officer of the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa (TISA), said the countries, including Zambia, are concerned at the growing trend to introduce cigarette packaging regulations that encroach on existing legal trademarks.

　　Ukraine and Honduras are reviving a dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) challenging Australian laws that introduced the so-called "plain packaging" requirements regarding the appearance and packaging of tobacco products.

　　Inclusive of significant trademark restrictions, the legislation requires tobacco products to be sold in standardised, olive-green packs with large graphic health warnings on both sides of the pack.

　　But van der Merwe said, "Any measure that goes beyond what is necessary to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco by limiting trademarks of legal products, runs the risk of achieving many unintended consequences for years to come".

　　"Extreme regulations, such as standardised packs, as in Australia will make it difficult to differentiate between tobacco products and will make counterfeiting easier, leading to a further rise in illicit trade," he said.

　　He explained that illicit trade in tobacco products was already of considerable proportion in the Southern African region, affecting all stakeholders throughout the tobacco value chain.

　　"Any increase in illicit trade due to extreme regulation which is not based on evidence and science, and on which full consultation has not taken place, will have disastrous negative consequences for countries in the region," said van der Merwe.

　　"SADC members Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi have registered their concerns around the impact of extreme tobacco packaging legislation, with all three having notified the WTO of their interest in becoming third parties to the Ukraine dispute on tobacco plain packaging. This is on the basis of the contribution of tobacco to their economies, a point on which they refuse to be mute participants and powerless negotiators in international forums here the outcome impacts their economies."

　　Plain packaging was introduced in Australia in December last year, and there has been manoeuvres by anti-smoking pressure groups to have African countries introduce the law after the big tobacco companies in Australia lost a lawsuit challenging the regulation.

　　Tobacco is grown in six out of 15 member states of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), including Zambia, and in all of the five tobacco growing member states, the crop is a key export earner with a significant contribution of between three to 10 per cent to the GDP of those countries. Enditem