Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.Although COVID-19 is giving us many reasons to grieve, today we’re also celebrating a public health victory.
Yesterday, the World Trade Organization ruled that Australia’s laws on plain packaging for tobacco products are justified, and are not unfair restrictions on trade.
Tobacco kills more than 8 million people every year, and Australia was the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging, without branding, in 2012.
Several other countries have since introduced similar laws.The tobacco industry has done everything it can to have these laws overturned, including challenging them at the World Trade Organization.Effectively, yesterday’s WTO ruling means the tobacco industry has run out