Dubai: Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has argued that removing packet designs from cigarettes is ineffective in discouraging smoking, despite data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to the contrary, and has called on other producers to be wary of the potential loss of revenue they face if the same regulations are applied to them.
In an interview with Gulf News at Gulfood on Sunday, Hadi Sleiman, JTI’s director of corporate affairs for the Middle East, contended that the introduction of plain packaging, seen in Australia, France, and the UK, was a “slippery slope” to other products, such as sugar and fats.
When challenged on whether this was an attempt to mislead and conflate tobacco, which is proven to cause cancer even in moderation, with soft drinks and other, less harmful products, Sleiman said: “We’re not grouping ourselves with anyone. We are just saying, what we’ve seen happen to our industry, is now happening to other industries.”
“These industries should be involved in the process of creating regulations,” he added.
WHO believes that the tobacco industry is fighting the move with these objections out of principle, and whilst legal challenges are expected, WHO officials say they’re just “an example of the tobacco industry’s broader strategy of using litigation to contest regulation, rather than a new phenomenon.”
JTI’s comments come a month after Brand Finance, an independent UK-based research firm, published a study highlighting the risks faced by traditional brands if they were to have their packaging made plain, like cigarettes.
The report suggests a hypothetical loss of at least $293 billion (Dh1.07 trillion) across the beverage industry, should similar regulations be enforced on their industry.
Despite this, there are no serious attempts by any governments to introduce plain packaging in soft drinks, or other product categories, at present.
