Dominican Republic officials consulted with Australian counterparts under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization to discuss objections to the introduction of plain packaging, according to a press release.

Dominican Republic has joined Ukraine and Honduras in a WTO challenge to Australia’s plan to require standardized packaging for cigarettes from December.
"Although we share Australia's health objectives, we remain unconvinced that plain packaging will have any positive effect in reducing consumption of tobacco products,” said Luis Manuel Piantini, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the WTO. His remarks were published in a press release from Swiss-based Farner Consulting. “Instead, we believe plain packaging will lead to increased consumption as a result of lower prices for our premium tobacco products, and an increase in illicit trade. We are also concerned that this kind of measures could affect other products, such as spirituous beverages for instance," Piantini said in the release. (pi)