Former Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has blamed the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) for the delay in producing tougher cigarette packaging rules here since the body has failed to create model legislation.
“We have developed a local legislation for Guyana but Guyana is a part of CROSQ and we did not want to proceed with a Guyana standard when we are a part of CROSQ and CROSQ haven’t done their own legislation… They are the ones who held it back,” Ramsammy told Stabroek News on Thursday.
In 2009, Ramsammy had committed to packaging that reflected the dangers of smoking in keeping with the World Health Organisation Frame-work Convention on Tobacco Control. However, by the time he demitted office last year no such legislation was in place.
Ramsammy on Thursday said that with regards to Guyana, legislation had already been drafted and agreed upon but is being stalled by CROSQ. “It makes no sense for us to implement it and then have to change it back to the Caribbean Standard,” he said.
The Minister said that he understood that at the level of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), two CARICOM countries had wanted amendments but he is of the view that if they are taking too long then Guyana should proceed on its own.
When contacted on Thursday, Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, said he would not be able to comment specifically on the legislation since many pieces of legislation are dealt with daily.
He said that the Ministry of Health has a technical team that is handling the legislation that addresses cigarette packaging and they are liaising directly with the drafting department of his chambers. As a result, he noted, officials within the Health Ministry would serve as a more appropriate source to discuss this matter.
Recently, when asked what his ministry is doing about the issue of cigarette packaging, Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran told this newspaper that legislation which will address cigarette packaging is currently being drafted as the impact of non-communicable diseases has been recognised.
“The idea I think is not to make the cigarette packages attractive and there will be warnings from the Ministry of Health. So yes, we are fully on board with that and that piece of legislation is in the percolator,” Ramsaran said in a brief interview.
The issue of cigarette packaging was back in public focus earlier this month after a landmark ruling in Australia upheld Canberra’s tough anti-tobacco marketing laws.
According to Reuters, Australia’s highest court endorsed tough new anti-tobacco marketing laws, dismissing a legal challenge from global cigarette companies in a major test case between tobacco giants and anti-smoking campaigners.
Tobacco giants British American Tobacco, Britain’s Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco challenged the laws in Australia’s High Court, claiming the rules were unconstitutional because they effectively extinguished their intellectual property rights. The judges hearing the case did not find that the laws breached the constitution.
The Australia decision means cigarettes and tobacco products must be sold in plain olive green packets without branding from December 1, 2012. The plain packages will also carry graphic health warnings.
