<\/p>\n Philip Morris Norway (PMN) has announced it\u2019s going to sue the Norwegian state. They claim the ban against displaying tobacco products that came into force on 01 January is illegal.<\/p>\n \u201cThese regulations prevent adult consumers from seeing the available product range. We have raised these issues with the government to no avail, which has regrettably left us with no choice but to litigate,\u201d says Anne Edwards, spokesperson for PMN.<\/p>\n Edwards goes on to say the company isn\u2019t seeking any other changes to the Norwegian tobacco law. They only want the ban overturned because it overly restricts competition. <\/p>\n … <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n More here<\/a> from Luke Peterson, as well as a piece<\/a> on a similar Philip Morris claim under an investment treaty between Switzerland and Uruguay (subscribers-only).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Over at the WTO, we are awaiting a panel ruling<\/a> on a customs valuation issue related to tobacco products:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Manila claims that Bangkok has been ignoring the declared customs values of Philip Morris\u2019 shipments, preferring instead to set higher "predetermined values" since 2006. <\/span><\/p>\n This meant higher duties and value-added taxes on imported cigarettes were also allegedly higher than those slapped on Thai counterparts.<\/p>\n These policies were said to unfairly favor the state-owned Thai Tobacco Monopoly which corners 80% of the domestic market.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Oh, and there is still the Jim Bunning issue<\/a>:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Sen. Jim Bunning, the Kentucky Republican who held Senate hostage over an unemployment bill earlier this month, is now causing trouble for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Bunning is blocking the confirmation of two trade nominees because, according to an aide, the USTR hasn\u2019t done enough to defend Bunning\u2019s home state against a Canadian antismoking law that \u201cunfairly discriminates against Kentucky-grown tobacco.\u201d Bunning said Tuesday he\u2019s seen no progress in his talks with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk about Canada\u2019s policy. <\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n Tobacco and trade\/investment issues are heating up. Philip Morris is suing Norway: Philip Morris Norway (PMN) has announced it\u2019s going to sue the Norwegian state. They claim the ban against displaying tobacco products that came into force on 01 January is illegal. \u201cThese regulations prevent adult consumers from seeing the available product range. We have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
The lawsuit will be filed at Oslo District Court. As part of the filing, PMN is seeking referral of the case to the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) Court in Luxembourg.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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