G/TBT/W/370  
 
2 July 2013  
(13-3432)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 EUROPEAN UNION – TOBACCO PRODUCTS, NICOTINE  CONTAINING PRODUCTS AND 
HERBAL PRODUCTS FOR SMOKING. PACKAGING FOR RETAIL SALE OF ANY OF THE 
AFOREMENTIONED PRODUCTS  
STATEMENT BY ZIMBABWE TO THE COMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE AT ITS 
MEETING OF 17, 19-20 JUNE 2013 
The following communication, dated 25 June 2013, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Zimbabwe. 
 
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1.  Our delegation appreciates the efforts bein g made by the EU to protect the health of 
consumers, however we would like to share concerns expressed by Malawi, Nicaragua , Cuba and others regarding the Directive on tobacco products. The EU measures are inconsistent with the 
TRIPS and TBT Agreements because they discriminate between like products, create unnecessary 
obstacles to trade and constitute an encumbrance to the use of trade marks. 
2.  The EU's Directive on tobacco products ha s a number of trade restrictive measures which 
include: 
a. Labelling requirements that require very large combined graphical/ textual health 
warnings covering 75% of the front and back  of the pack and broad bans on product 
descriptors and product related information. 
b. Packaging requirements on prescriptive deta ils relating to the shape, size, material, 
opening mechanisms and minimum content of packs. 
c. Bans on some categories of products, such as menthol products and slim cigarettes.  
3.  In promoting international trade, the multilateral trading system provides enough regulatory 
flexibility to effectively protect legitimate polic y objectives, such as health and the environment 
and establishes two basic regulatory requirements . These regulatory requirements are that the 
regulation should not discriminate on the basis of origin and it must also be necessary to achieve 
the desired policy objective. Two conditions must  be met for a measure to be deemed necessary. 
Firstly a proven science based relation, of caus e and effect between the measure and the policy 
objectives must exist, secondly regulators of the measure must adopt the least trade restrictive 
measure available to achieve such an objective. 
4.  Our concern regarding the EU's Tobacco products Directive are that the measures unjustifiably 
discriminates between like products of different WT O Members in violation of Article 2.1 of the TBT 
Agreement. The measures also impose unnecessary trade restrictions since there has been no 
scientific evidence. Further to this, the measures do not to work towards the desired policy objective and Less trade restrictive alternative measures have not been considered thereby 
violating Article 2.2 of the TBT Agreement. 
5.  Furthermore, the measures will impact negatively on employment, economic performance and 
poverty alleviation efforts of our economy. Tobacco farming has become a major economic activity and source of livelihood for many farmers in deve loping countries such as Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe 
there are over 90,000 registered tobacco growers , 82% of whom are small scale producers. Over G/TBT/W/370 
 
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  200,000 families and their dependants rely on tobacco farming as a source of livelihood. Tobacco 
contributes significantly to GDP and is a major export earner.  
6.  Whilst there has been no scientific evidence th at the measures will influence the behaviour of 
consumers or reduce smoking amongst youths, it is a known fact that the measures will result in 
higher poverty levels and this will compound health challenges that developing countries face. In 
light of this we request the EU to consider our concerns. 
 
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