The farmers are worried that Indonesia’s overall tobacco exports will drop if the WTO rules in favor of Australia, which requires the removal of all company branding on cigarette packaging, permitting manufacturers to print only the brand name in a mandated size, font and color.

The Indonesian Tobacco Farmers Association (APTI) told The Jakarta Post that although Australia was not the main trader of Indonesian tobacco, more countries would apply a similar policy if the land down under managed to reduce the number of its smokers.

“The policy’s provision will decrease our tobacco exports as anti-tobacco movements have emerged in other countries, even before the WTO dispute settlement,” APTI head Wisnu Brata said on Wednesday.

In December 2012, Australia became the first country to fully implement the policy that obliged all cigarettes sold in Australia to be wrapped with a drab dark brown color, as the government found that it was the least attractive color, particularly for young people. The policy went into force with a tax increase to realize Australia’s plan to bring down its adult daily smoking rate from 16.6 percent in 2007 to less than 10 percent by 2018.

A year after the policy’s enactment, the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that there was a smoking rate decrease to 12.8 percent from 15.1 percent in 2010. (bbn)

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