Saturday, October 20, 2012

Is Australia's Plain Packaging discriminatory in favour of local products?

The Tobacco Plain Packaging dispute is gradually progressing at the WTO. Honduras, one of the complainants against Australia, filed its complaint at the WTO which is available here. I have earlier blogged about the issue here, here, here and here. Apart from the main challenge on the grounds that plain packaging legislation is inconsistent with Australia's commitments under the TRIPS Agreement I found the points in relation to discrimination between local products and foreign products a bit untenable:
"  Article 3.1 of the TRIPs Agreement, because Australia accords to nationals of other Members treatment less favourable than it accords to its own nationals with respect to the protection of intellectual property;
...
  Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement and Article III:4 of the GATT 1994, because the measures at issue result in treatment less favourable of imported products than of like products of national origin."
I found these two leal claims rather strange since the plain packaging applies equally to tobacco products manufactured in Australia and imported into Australia. Further, it is difficult to imagine de facto discrimination in this case. Am I missing something here?






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