The chief executive of Australia’s largest cigarette company has lashed out at the government’s proposed plain packaging law, saying it would “backfire” and spur tobacco firms to flood the market with cheap cigarettes.
Big Tobacco has predicted a big fight over the groundbreaking law, which would replace customary distinctive logos with plain-colored packs and graphic images of death and disease. In an an interview with Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph, the chief executive of British American Tobacco Australia, David Crow, minced few words, calling the measure “stupid” and “mad.”
“It’s going to backfire and go bad and lead to more people smoking, which is just mad if you’re sitting at a government desk,” he warned.
According to the government, smoking kills 15,000 Australians a year and costs the country about $33 billion annually. Under the Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011, product names would appear in standard colors and packets will be colored a dark olive-brown, which government research has found is the least appealing color to smokers.
The law, due to go to Australia’s parliament next month, is regarded as the most aggressive anti-smoking effort by any country. It is moving forward as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also is working on more conspicuous cigarette pack warning labels.
But Crow said the Australian law would boost the market for illicit counterfeit cigarettes, which cost as little as 30 percent of a regular pack, because the plain packaging would be easier to copy. Tobacco companies, he contends, then would be forced to cut prices by as much as 50 percent to match the black-market competition. Cheap prices “basically means more people will smoke, more kids will smoke,” Crow said.
According to Crow, illicit, or “chop-chop,” cigarettes currently account for about 16 percent of the Australian market.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon scoffed at Crow’s comments. “I’ve always said that Big Tobacco will fight plain packaging tooth and nail,” she said. “These baseless claims are just another sign of how desperate they are.”
British American Tobacco has said it will fight the packaging law in court, predicting the government will be liable for “billions of dollars” in compensation.
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