The Dominican Republic has applauded the recent preliminary ruling (WT/DS441/19) by a World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel that rejected all of Australia’s procedural objections to the Dominican Republic’s claims against that country’s plain packaging law for tobacco products.
The dispute is being coordinated by Katrina Naut, the Dominican Republic’s director general of Foreign Trade in her capacity as a national expert, and by Dominican ambassador to the WTO Luis Manuel Piantini.
The Dominican Republic has now taken the important step of filing its first written submission in the dispute, using comprehensive analysis of data from the marketplace. They have noted that nearly two years since Australia’s plain packaging measures took effect, the measures have failed to contribute to reducing smoking in Australia. Instead, the measures are threatening the position of the Dominican Republic’s tobacco brands, and also the local industries that manufacture these products.
http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2014/11/13/682915/10107978/en/WTO-Panel-s-Preliminary-Ruling-Favours-Dominican-Republic-in-Its-Challenge