Smoking: international meeting in Paris for the pack of cigarettes … – Les Echos

The Health Minister, Marisol Touraine, will chair this Monday in Paris, an “international ministerial conference fight against smoking and supportive to neutral package” in the company of representatives of the governments of Australia, South Africa, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Uruguay. The meeting aims to unite the forces of the ten countries to deal with the tobacco industry.

According to the Ministry of Health, these countries will sign a final joint declaration. “The objective that we pursue with other countries at the international level, is a tobacco-free world and the French desire is that the generation born today is a tobacco-free generation” is Marisol Touraine said on RTL. She recalled that tobacco kills 78,000 people each year in France and that he would 8 million deaths worldwide in 2030 if nothing was done

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Neutral package: “A world without tobacco, it is the … by joe-en <- / sdvenc ->

A measure still unpopular

In France, the introduction of neutral pack of cigarettes, adopted by MEPs on April 3 at first reading, will come into force in May 2016. From this date, all packets look like: no logo, shape, color, size and similar typography The only thing that will distinguish them is the brand name, registered small print Flagship measure.. the plan of fight against smoking the Minister of Health, she was nevertheless considered in April 2015, by a very large majority of French (73%) as “inefficient” according to a Odoxa-FTI Consulting survey to “Les Echos “and Radio Classique.

The Senate Committee on Social Affairs will examine in turn the Health Bill Wednesday, when tobacconists, opposed the measure, plan to mobilize. Meanwhile, tobacconists of Gironde, Correze, or Midi-Pyrénées, neutralized, this weekend, dozens of radars, while raising slogans like “Remove tobacconists will not reduce smoking. No neutral package, not the package to 10 euros, “or,” Standards, banned … Stop annoy the French “according to Frédéric Vergnes, chairman of the Chambre Syndicale tobacconists of Corrèze.

“By attacking the radar, we want to touch the tax revenue of the State” , he added, also noting the difficulty of tobacconists in “rural areas that do not have many weapons to respond” the face of declining sales and cigarette trafficking. In an interview with “Sunday Journal”, the socialist deputy of the Doubs, Frédéric Barbier, in charge of a working group on the future of tobacconists, emphasizes that “The market lost 20% in ten years still lose 10% by 2020 with neutral package “. Believing necessary a “revaluation” of the remuneration to maintain a profession that pays almost 14 billion euros in taxes per year to the state.

Australia, a precursor countries

If the measurement divided, pro and anti-neutral package will s Pressing the experience of other countries, including that of Australia. The Australians were the first to try to neutral package, in December 2012. According to Marisol Touraine, this allowed to bring the following year, awareness and a strong decrease in smoking in this country among the young, “particularly susceptible to marketing effect” brands . While official figures confirm the words of the Minister, the Australian authorities have nevertheless consistently increased the tobacco tax, bringing the cost of the package to more than 13 euros. Furthermore, tobacco smuggling has increased dramatically.

In March, the British Parliament approved the introduction of neutral pack of cigarettes from 2016, despite fierce opposition from industry professionals. England became the second European country to adopt such legislation after Ireland.

“My goal, with neutral package, they are not smokers rooted in tobacco long time, but to prevent youth from starting to smoke and for them, the package has a neutral impact “, commented Marisol Touraine. Asked about the proposal for Michèle Delaunay, a Socialist MP and former Minister of Seniors in the government Ayrault, to pass packets to 10 euros, she assured that it was “not the objective of the government” . “The price of tobacco has risen steadily and significantly over the past three years” , she recalled. “We must prepare for that sales are less important, and to ensure that the activity can be reoriented tobacconists’ , she said again, in response to concerns traders

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