. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/CAN/329 
2 March 2011  
 (11-1072) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English/ 
 French 
 
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  CANADA   
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  Department of Health 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
Canadian Enquiry Point 
200-270 Albert Street Ottawa, Ontario Canada, K1P 6N7  Tel.:  +1 613 238 3222 
Fax.:  +1 613 569 7808 
E-mail: mailto:enquirypoint@scc.ca
 
 
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [ X ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Bidis, cigarettes, cigarette 
tobacco, cigars, kreteks, leaf tobacco, little cigars, pipe tobacco, smokeless tobacco and 
tobacco sticks (ICS:  55.230, 65.160) 
5. Title, number of pages and langu age(s) of the notified document:  Proposed Amendments 
to the Tobacco Products Information Regulations (20 pages available in English and French). 
6. Description of content:  The Tobacco Products Information Regulations  (TPIR) establish 
the requirements for information that must be displayed on tobacco produc ts that are for retail 
sale in Canada.  
The Department of Health is proposing regulations, Regulations Amending the Tobacco 
Products Information Regulations , pursuant to the Tobacco Act  that would remove the 
applicability of the TPIR to cigarettes and litt le cigars. Those products would be regulated 
instead by the proposed Tobacco Products Labelling Regul ations (Cigarettes and Little 
Cigars)  (TPLR-CLC). 
In addition, for those tobacco products still regulated by the TPIR, the Regulations Amending 
the Tobacco Products Information Regulations  would respond to problems in the TPIR with 
respect to redundant language, clarity and consis tency and errors in term inology as identified 
by the Standing Joint Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations and would remove the obligation 
in the TPIR to list numerical values for toxic emissions.  G/TBT/N/CAN/329 
Page 2  
 
  Note:  Many of the proposed amendments in cluded in these Regulations were first pre-
published in the Canada Gazette , Part I, on May 31, 2008 (notified under 
G/TBT/N/CAN/243). However, the proposed TPLR-CLC, which woul d replace the TPIR 
with respect to cigarettes and little cigars, woul d result in significant changes to the scope of 
the TPIR and has necessitated a new pr epublication of the proposed Regulations. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Protection of human health  
8. Relevant documents:   Canada Gazette , Part I, 19 February 2011, Pages 557 - 576 (available 
in English and French)   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
 
Proposed date of entry into force:    Anticipated within 4 to 9 months of 
prepublication in the Canada Gazette , Part I.  
The Regulations would come into force on the 
day on which they are adopted.    However, the proposed amendments would 
provide for a transition period of 18 months 
during which time th e current TPIR would 
continue to apply to packages of tobacco products (other than ciga rettes and lit tle cigars) 
and any accompanying leaflets that are in accordance with that version.  
The Regulations would also provide a second 
transitional period to allow packages that display health information messages that have been reproduced from the electronic images obtained from the electronic files used to 
generate the former "source document" to 
continue to display those health information messages for three years after the Regulations come into force. This provision would allow manufacturers of the tobacco products still 
covered by the TPIR to coordinate routine 
packaging changes with the changes required to the health information messages. 
10. Final date for comments:  5 May 2011 
11. Text available from: National enquiry point [X], or address, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:   The electronic version of the 
regulatory text can be downloaded at:   
http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-p r/p1/2011/2011-02-19/pdf/g1-14508.pdf   (Canada Gazette) 
or  
http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/ p1/2011/2011-02-19/html/reg4-eng.html  (English)  
http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/ p1/2011/2011-02-19/html/reg4-fra.html  (French)