Plain Packaging Ideas Arrive To The Other Side Of The Pacific

The final chapter of what started with the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act of 2011 in Australia remains to be seen, with a complaint presented by Ukraine, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Indonesia before an arbitration panel at the WTO still pending. However, the splash made by this new Australian regulation did generate massive waves of both private concern and public initiative that have spread around the globe.

Across the Pacific Ocean the ripple effect reached Chile at high speed, with a new Bill (Boletín 8886-11) introduced to the Senate in 2013 and currently at the second stage of the legislative process being reviewed by the Chamber of Deputies. The original motion, following the example of the Australian Act, proposed to change current Chilean regulations in order to include mandatory warning language and pictures on 100% of the two main outer surfaces of the cigarette packaging. After further discussion in Congress, the Bill that passed on to the second