Concerns over transposing TPD

Cigarette manufacturers in Romania are asking that the deadline for production compliance with provisions of the EU’s new Tobacco Products Directive be reset, according to an AGERPRES story.

The manufacturers say that compliance will involve investments that cannot be made until the directive has been transposed into Romanian law.

Until the directive is transposed, manufacturers do not know the technical specifications that Romania will impose on tobacco products, because member states have some discretion in this regard.

During a meeting with the inter-ministry committee responsible for transposing the directive, representatives of British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Philip Morris International apparently asked that the deadline for manufacturing compliance, currently May 20, be set six-months after the law’s coming into force in Romania.

Several EU states, including Denmark and Poland, are said also to have asked for deferments to avoid upsetting the legal market in tobacco products and thereby reducing government tobacco-tax revenue.