Australia demands opponents stop stalling WTO tobacco case

By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) – Australia asked five countries challenging its tobacco policies on Wednesday to stop delaying the progress of their cases at the World Trade Organization and took the unusual step of speeding up one of the complaints against itself. Indonesia, Ukraine, Cuba, Honduras and Dominican Republic have all launched complaints at the world trade body to try to overturn Australia’s “plain packaging” laws on tobacco. Australia hopes the stringent packaging laws will reduce smoking and improve public health, and other countries around the world have said they may follow suit, based on the WTO case, raising the stakes for a speedy resolution. An Australian diplomat told the WTO’s dispute settlement body that the uncertainty of the proceedings and the failure to move towards a settlement was having a “regulatory chilling” effect on other countries thinking of putting their own tobacco rules in place, and said there could be a “human cost” of delays.