Reuters reports that Canada's ban on flavored tobacco is now in effect:
Canada has banned the manufacture, importation and sale of most flavored cigarettes and small cigars, which have been slammed as little more than an enticement to get children to start smoking.
There are two trade issues here. First, as mentioned before, there's the issue of how American burley tobacco is treated:
... the industry complained the law was too broad and would unfairly restrict importation of U.S.-grown burley tobacco.
Lawmakers in U.S. tobacco-growing states have complained the law will cost U.S. jobs, and a U.S. Senator has been blocking the appointment of a White House trade official in a bid to make the Obama administration put pressure on Canada.
Second, there is the issue of cloves, discussed in detail in relation to the similar U.S. ban. I was hoping the press reports would explain how the Canadian ban applied to clove cigarettes (and other clove tobacco products), but I didn't see anything about this. I thought I'd try to figure it out myself, but my lack of expertise on both Canadian law and cigarettes is a bit of an impediment. Here's what I was able to dig up (anyone who has more details should feel free to post them in the comments).
The law itself is here. The key language bans tobacco products with "additive[s] set out in column 1 of the schedule". The schedule is here. The ninth additive listed is "Spices, seasonings and herbs". From what I recall about clove cigarettes in relation to the U.S. ban, cloves are considered a spice. So does this mean cloves are covered by the Canadian ban? It seems likely. If so, will Indonesia raise concerns about this ban at the WTO? Most likely the amounts involved are significantly less than with the U.S. ban, so the concern won't be as great. Nonetheless, the principle is still important. Just like with the U.S. ban, the Canadian ban permits menthol cigarettes to be sold (at least according to the Reuters article quoted above).
