20 July 2012

BATNZ urges for evaluation before regulation

As cigarettes are set to be hidden from sight in shops from this Monday, British American Tobacco New Zealand (BATNZ) believes the Government should review the effectiveness, or otherwise, of this policy before blindly introducing further tobacco control measures.

“It would be common-sense to see whether the retail display ban is effective or not, before rushing ahead with a proposal like plain packaging that is not proven to work and ignores international commitments to intellectual property rights,” said Nick Booth, BATNZ spokesman.

Mr Booth went on to say that while a Government policy might be anti-tobacco, it doesn’t mean that it will work.

“The Government has a very comprehensive tobacco control agenda, in addition to the retail display ban; let’s not forget that a 40% tax hike over 4 years is on the way. Public policy would be better served by carefully evaluating the effectiveness of these measures before pushing ahead with untested and unproven plain packaging regulations.” Mr Booth added.

ENDS

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