A couple weeks ago, I mentioned Malawi's criticism of the proposed EU tobacco products directive. Someone pointed out to me that the Dominican Republic also made a submission on this issue. There were two things I wanted to note in that submission.
First, in my post, I expressed surprised that Malawi did not mention TBT Article 2.1. In contrast, the Dominican Republic did:
3.1. The Dominican Republic is concerned that the Directive may run counter to Article 2.1 and 2.2 of the TBT Agreement.
3.2. Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement requires Members to ensure "that in respect of technical regulations, products imported from the territory of any Members shall be accorded treatment no less favourable than that accorded to like products of national origin and to like products originating in any other country". The Dominican Republic is concerned that, under the proposed Directive, tobacco products imported from the Dominican Republic and other developing countries would be treated less favourably than other like products originating in EU or other countries. In this regard, we are particularly disturbed by the fact that the discrimination which might ensue from the proposed ban on the use of descriptors of characterizing flavours, as well as on "slim" and flavoured cigarettes.
This seems to be a de facto discrimination claim, perhaps based on the idea that certain kinds of cigarettes come mainly from certain countries.
Second, there was this:
On 18 January 2013, the European Union (EU) notified the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) that the European Commission had published its final proposal for a new Tobacco Products Directive. Although the Dominican Republic shares the EU's interest for protecting human health, as demonstrated by its high import duties on such products and its restrictions on the public areas in which they can be used, this draft proposal causes the Dominican Republic great concern.
Here, I'm not sure I see how "high import duties" shows an interest in protecting public health. I talked to some anti-tobacco compaigners about this issue a few months ago, and they seemed to favor high taxes, not import duties.
