<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">WTO Panel Upholds Ruling That US Ban On Clove Cigarettes Is Discriminatory<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120404-709787.html" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120404-709787.html</a><o:p></o:p></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A World Trade Organization appeals panel Wednesday upheld an earlier decision that the U.S. ban on clove cigarettes discriminates against Indonesia, in a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to prevent youth from smoking.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Taking issue with the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act giving the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate the tobacco industry, the ruling found that the law violated global trade rules by banning the production and sale of cigarettes with cloves and many other flavors but not menthol.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">The appeals panel said the design and application of the law "strongly suggest that the detrimental impact on competitive opportunities for clove cigarettes reflects discrimination against the group of like products imported from Indonesia."<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Indonesia, the world's leading producer of clove cigarettes, challenged the law in 2010, arguing that it unfairly favors U.S.-based menthol cigarette makers. An earlier WTO decision agreed with Indonesia on the discrimination charge, while acknowledging that the law's aim of discouraging young people from smoking was legitimate.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Some consumer groups have expressed concern that a WTO ruling against the law could undermine U.S. health policy. However, a group of former U.S. Health Department heads and Surgeons General have argued that banning menthol cigarettes would both resolve the trade dispute and benefit public health.</p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><br></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Honduras joins WTO complaint on Australia tobacco packaging<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/wto-australia-tobacco-idUSL6E8F4BQC20120404" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/wto-australia-tobacco-idUSL6E8F4BQC20120404</a><o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">(Reuters) - Honduras joined a complaint on Wednesday against an Australian law requiring all tobacco to be sold in plain packaging, warning of "serious economic consequences" if the measure was enforced.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Honduras, like <a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/australia" title="Full coverage of Australia" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">Australia</a>, was in favour of legitimate steps to reduce smoking, but plain packaging was not one of them, the central American country's ambassador to the WTO, Dacio Castillo, said.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">"Australia's plain packaging requirements would defeat the basic function of a trademark, which is to allow consumers to distinguish between products of different companies," Castillo said in a statement.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">The initial complaint was launched by Ukraine and is being closely watched by a number of other WTO members, with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/brazil" title="Full coverage of Brazil" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">Brazil</a>, Canada, the European Union, Guatemala, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway and Uruguay asked to be third parties in the dispute.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">But so far only Honduras has taken sides.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">"The tobacco industry has been part of Honduras' history for more than a century," Castillo added.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">"The industry employs several hundred thousand people directly and indirectly ...This translates into tens of millions of dollars for the Honduran economy."<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">He said that Australia's law, which will require all tobacco products to be sold in plain packaging without brands or logos by Dec 1, was against WTO rules on intellectual property rights and technical barriers to trade.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">If Ukraine and Honduras cannot settle their differences with Australia, they may ask the WTO to set up a dispute panel to rule on their complaint, which could eventually force Australia to scrap its law. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by John Stonestreet)</p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><br></p><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Arthur Stamoulis</div><div>Citizens Trade Campaign</div><div>(202) 494-8826</div><div><br></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>