. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/W/335 
22 March 2011 
 (11-1418) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
THE IMPACT OF BRAZIL’S DRAFT REGULATION ON MAXIMUM LEVELS OF TAR, 
NICOTINE AND CARBON MONOXIDE ON TOBACCO PRODUCTS AND THE 
PROHIBITION OF ADDITIVES IN INDONESIAN CIGARETTES 
 
 
The following communication, dated 21 March 2011, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Indonesia
. 
 
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I. INTRODUCTION 
1. As a tobacco and cigarette producing country, In donesia is much concerned about the draft 
resolution which establishes the pe rmissible maximum levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide in 
tobacco products and prohibits the use of additives in the production of all tobacco products which are 
manufactured and sold in Brazil.  
2. Indonesia fully understands and recognizes that the two key objectives behind this draft 
resolution are the protection of human health and th e prevention of deceptive or misleading practices.  
3. More specifically, we note that this resolution aims to prohibit the production and marketing 
in Brazil of any smoking products derived from tob acco which contain the prohibited additives listed 
in Annex 1.  
4. Indonesia thanks Brazil for the advance notifica tion of the draft resolution and their related 
comments, but would like to request further clarification on a number of issues.  
II. QUESTIONS RAISED 
5. Could you please explain whether the official definition of tobacco products, as outlined in 
this draft resolution, also extends to Biddi es and Kretek?  If yes, please elaborate further. 
6. As per the notification, the draft resolution est ablishes the maximum levels of tar, nicotine 
and carbon monoxide permissible in tobacco products and also prohibits the use of additives.  In 
relation to this, we would like to ask:   
(a) Firstly, in reference to Article 3, could you please explain the current international 
laws which regulate the maximum levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide in 
tobacco products? 
(b) Secondly, we note that Annex 1 contains a list of prohibited additives.  Could you 
therefore please provide further explanation about  each additive and clarify whether 
this prohibition also applies to tobacco products which are either smoked or are 
smokeless?  G/TBT/W/335 
Page 2  
 
  7. According to Article 4, Brazil states that it is "prohibited to use any denomination in the 
package or in any advertising material of all t obacco products that may cause consumer to misleading 
interpretation as to the content contained in th ese products, such as class, ultra-low content, low 
content, soft, light, mild, modera te, high, content, and others". 
(a) In this regard, could Brazil please explain in  greater detail which words in particular 
are prohibited on packaging and also pr ovide examples of words that are still 
permitted?  For example, are the prohibite d words only those words that actually 
describe the content or design of the ciga rette or which deceptively imply a reduced 
risk to health (for example the words "light " or "mild")?  Would words that are not 
specifically linked to the content or design of the cigarette also be prohibited?  For 
example would the word "Lucky" be considered to be misleading to consumers?    
(b) Does Brazil plan to initiate a process to ga in "pre-approval" of packaging so that 
companies will not be found in violation of  Article 4 once the cigarette products have 
already been shipped and sold on the market in Brazil?  
(c)  Finally if a prohibited word is part of th e brand name, will Article 4 also prohibit the 
name of the brand?  
8. Indonesia notes that Annex 1 outlines a number of exceptions from the ban on the use of 
additives.  For example, additives that are "require d to manufacture tobacco products" are excluded.  
Could Brazil explain how and why certain types of additives could be excluded from the ban?  
9. According to Draft Resolution No.1 12, Chapter II, Article 3:  "In the cigarettes sold in Brazil, 
limits of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide in the mainstream smoke are de termined by quantitative 
analysis laboratory", could Brazil please explain th e characteristics of these kinds of laboratories and 
define which kind of laboratories determine accep table levels limits of tar, nicotine and carbon 
monoxide in mainstream smoke? 
10. Article 2.12 of the TBT Agreement requires Memb ers, except in urgent circumstances, to 
provide a "reasonable interval" of time to allow memb ers to adapt their products to new regulations.  
Indonesia understands that a "reasonable interval" h as been interpreted to be at least six months.  
However it appears from the proposed draft that th e requirements for levels of nicotine and tar in 
Article 3, the labelling and packaging in Article 4 become effective for cigarettes immediately. 
(a) In this regard, is Indonesia correct in un derstanding that the requirements of Articles 
4 and 5 now apply to cigarettes immediately?  If not, could Brazil please clarify the length of the transition period for co mpliance permitted for manufacturers and 
importers of cigarettes?  
(b) If this requirement does apply immediately to ci garettes, can we take this to mean that 
Brazil regards this as an "urgent problem " as described in Article 10 of the TBT 
Agreement? 
 
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