In a letter to the Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson, the Secretary-General of the ICC, Jean-Guy, wrote that the scheme will establish a risky example and also collapse the international laws that protect trademarks and intellectual property.
"The ability of brand owners to market their product in unique and easily identifiable ways is a core element of a developed society's protection of intellectual property rights," ICC spokesman Jeffrey Hardy said in a statement.
ICC said there had been no research and no data to support plain packaging as a deterrent to smoking and called for Australian government to reject 'plain packaging' and look for alternative policy options.
"Australia has been a leading voice in support of intellectual property rights and rules-based commerce," said Hardy, "but the proposed regulations mandating the elimination of trademarks… is in direct and dangerous conflict with this view.
Further, Hardy said that plain packaging would make it easier for counterfeiters, which would expose consumers to products with "unknown and potentially dangerous ingredients”.(pi)