WTO裁決肯定澳大利亞香菸白板包裝法

Australia has won a landmark victory at the World Trade Organisation over its ban on branded cigarette packaging in a decision that could spur a further wave of Tobacco regulation in other countries.

就禁止品牌香菸包裝的做法，澳大利亞在世界貿易組織（WTO）贏得了一場里程碑式的勝利，這一裁決可能會在其它國家引發又一波菸草監管浪潮。

The WTO rejected claims brought by Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia and Cuba that the plain packaging measures introduced in 2011 to curb smoking on health grounds were inconsistent with its rules.

WTO駁回了洪都拉斯、多米尼加共和國、印尼和古巴提出的主張，即2011年澳大利亞以健康爲由引入白板包裝措施以減少吸菸的做法，與WTO的規則不符。

The ruling, which was issued late last Thursday by the WTO, is the latest in a swathe of legal victories achieved by Canberra, which was the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging laws.

WTO在上週四晚發佈了這一裁決，這是澳大利亞政府取得的一系列訴訟勝利中的最新一次。澳大利亞是世界上第一個引入白板包裝法律的國家。

"This is a significant win for the country as we continue to work hard towards reducing the damaging effects of smoking," said Steve Ciobo, Australia's trade minister.

澳大利亞貿易部長史蒂文·喬博表示：“這對澳大利亞來說是一次重大勝利，我們將繼續努力減輕吸菸的破壞性影響。”

"After years of robustly defending the tobacco plain packaging measures against multiple claims brought within multiple forums... this is the conclusion to these efforts to challenge Australia's right to introduce legitimate measures to protect human health."

“多年以來，澳大利亞在很多論壇上對香菸白板包裝措施進行了強有力的辯護...這次勝利，終止了挑戰澳大利亞引入合法措施、保護人類健康的權利的努力。”

Unless any of the country's taking the WTO action successfully appeal the ruling, health experts predict other countries will introduce bans on plain packaging.

衛生專家們預測，除非提起這項WTO訴訟的國家中有任何一個對上述裁定上訴並勝訴，否則其他國家將引入禁止品牌香菸包裝的措施。

Mike Daube, professor of health policy at Curtin University, who has campaigned against tobacco, said this was the eighth legal battle that Big Tobacco had lost on the issue.

科廷大學衛生政策教授邁克·道貝一直在爲反對菸草而努力。他表示，這是菸草巨擘們在此問題上輸掉的第8場官司。

"Plain packaging is here to stay; it has been adopted in eight countries; it is under consideration in another 16. We can now be confident that many more countries will follow," he said.

他說：“白板包裝已深入人心；它已在8個國家被採納；另外16個國家正在考慮這一做法。現在我們可以確信，還會有很多國家效仿澳大利亞。”

Australia has introduced some of the toughest anti-smoking measures in the world over the past quarter of a century, which has seen the daily smoking rate decrease to 14.7 per cent in 2014-15, compared to 27.7 per cent in 1990.

在過去的25年裏，澳大利亞引入了一些世界上最嚴厲的反吸菸措施。結果是，澳大利亞的每日吸菸率從1990年的27.7%下降至2014到2015年的14.7%。