Chile steering toward 100 percent warnings

BAT Chile will close its factory if draft anti-tobacco legislation is passed into law in its current form, according to a company spokesman quoted in an Agence France Presse story relayed by the TMA.

Among other provisions, the draft legislation calls for cigarette-pack health warnings to be increased from 50 percent to 100 percent ‘of the pack surface’.

And it seeks a ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes.

Carlos Lopez, head of corporate affairs at BAT Chile, said the bill’s “disproportionate” and “often illegal” provisions on generic packaging and the “scientifically unfounded” menthol ban would boost illegal trade, which, he added’ had risen by 400 percent during the past five years.

Lopez said that if the bill were passed in its current form, “we’ll close our factory”. The bill has passed in the Senate and is currently before the lower house.