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Tobacco Law In Honduras In Force Since February 2011 

The comprehensive Tobacco Control Law is effective in Honduras since February 21st 2011. This law is based on the framework convention for tobacco control of the World Health Organization which the country ratified in 2004 with other 171 nations.

In Latin America, Honduras joins Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Panama, Mexico, Guatemala, Buenos Aires, nine Argentinean provinces, and seven Brazilian states in having strong smoke-free laws and policies. Honduras also has one of the strongest policies on pictorial warning labels in the region, along with Uruguay.

The law aims to reduce and gradually eliminate the tobacco consume in order to grant people´s health right especially to women and children which are more exposed to the risks derived from the tobacco -active or passive- consume.

The new legislation ´s objective is to regulate the production, distribution, trade, import, consume, publicity, promotion and sponsorship related to tobacco products.

It specifically prohibits smoking in public or private closed places.

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EDITORIAL: Freedom goes up in smoke  

The country has produced tobacco since at least the 18th century, and cigars are a popular export. A lot of cigars apparently stay there, too. Health authorities there say nine out of 10 people who suffer bronchitis live in homes where there are smokers.

For every dollar made by Honduras' tobacco industry, the nation spends $10 to fight smoking-related diseases. Clearly something has to be done further to protect the health of this country's people.

But it shouldn't be done at the expense of individual rights -- even the rights of the coughing, wheezing stalwarts who insist on smoking.

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Smokers in Honduras, Beware: Your Family Can Report You for Lighting Up at Home  

If you're a smoker in Honduras and your family hates it, we have some bad news for you. (But good news for your lungs!)

A new law was enacted Monday that cracks down on the those who light up. Smoking is now banned in most public and private spaces, and while it's still legal to smoke inside your home, family and guests have the right to file a formal complaint with the police if they don't enjoy the secondhand smoke.

(More on TIME.com: Does smoking cause hypertension in kids? Hint: Yes) . . .

Then again, considering how aggravating and dangerous secondhand smoke can be and how high the fine is, perhaps the new laws will make smokers think twice before lighting up around their loved ones.

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• Honduras law lets police be called on home smokers 

A new law that took effect Monday says family members can call in the police on people who smoke at home.

The new measure bans smoking in most closed public or private spaces and orders smokers to stand at least six feet away from nonsmokers in any open space.

The law explicitly bans smoking in schools, gas stations, nightclubs, restaurants, bars, buses, taxis, stadiums and cultural centers but it doesn't clearly ban smoking at home.

A clause, however, expressly says relatives or visitors can summon police to deal with smokers at home: "Families or individuals may complain to law enforcement authorities when smokers expose them to secondhand smoke in private places and family homes."

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A Month of Cigar Festivals  

February has turned into party month in the cigar business. Three cigar festivals are taking place this month.

The parties begin this week in the Dominican Republic, with the fourth annual ProCigar Festival. ProCigar is a group of cigarmakers in the Dominican Republic . . .

Next week, Honduras joins the cigar festival crowd for the first time, with the Humor Jaguar festival, which runs February 13 through 17. . . .

The original cigar festival, and the biggest of them all, takes place in Havana starting on February 21.

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Swedish Match and the Plasencia Group Join Forces to Form a New Tobacco Operation  

Swedish Match AB announced today it has signed an agreement with the Plasencia Group (PG) to form a new tobacco growing/procurement operation for its Swedish Match International (SMI) cigar business. Swedish Match will acquire a 20% interest in the newly formed Caribbean Cigar Holdings. This follows the strategic goal of Swedish Match in developing its global cigar business to be best in class. The Plasencia Group will remain in charge of operations.

PG is a family owned tobacco growing and premium cigar production operation located in Honduras and Nicaragua. The company is highly regarded within the cigar industry for its leaf growing, processing, and cigar making expertise.

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Honduran President Orders Pay Hike--Cigar Brands Affected 

Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has ordered a comprehensive increase in the minimum wage that will require cigar factory owners to pay their rollers up to 50 percent more.

"The pay hike is effective February 1st," said Rocky Patel, owner of Honduran-made Rocky Patel premium cigars, which are produced in the El Paraiso factory near Danl�.

"The cigar industry will be heavily impacted by the increase," said Alan Rubin, owner of Alec Bradley cigars.

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Scandinavian Tobacco buys C. American cigar plants 

Europe's largest cigar manufacturer, Scandinavian Tobacco Group, said on Thursday it had bought two family-owned cigar factories in Central America for an undisclosed sum to expand its global footprint.

The factories are in Danli, in Honduras, and Esteli, in Nicaragua

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Hurricane has Minimal Impact on Cigar in Nicaragua and Honduras 

Hurricane Felix struck Nicaragua as a Category 5 storm yesterday . . .

Despite the power of the storm, its impact on Nicaragua's cigar industry appears to be minimal. Cigar production in the country is concentrated in Estelí, much farther south, where little of the storm's strength was felt.

The biggest concern for the Nicaraguan cigar industry were the tobacco fields of Jalapa, which were close to the storm's impact zone in the north, near the border of Honduras.

"Jalapa's OK -- no problems," said Jorge Padrón, president of Padrón Cigars Inc., which uses tobacco from across Nicaragua.

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SIEWERT: Cigar babes head to Honduras 

The first words out of her mouth were: "Call Mary Lynn at Lake Country Cigars right away. She has a great opportunity for you!" My curiosity set in and I dialed her number.

Three months later I was on an airplane heading to Danli, Honduras, with 15 other women, mostly from the Lake Country area. I was officially a member of Cigar Babes, a group of women cigar smokers which Mary Lynn Kane Smith, owner of Lake Country Cigars in Delafield, had formed eight years ago.

It was the first time Rocky Patel of Rocky Patel Premium Cigars hosted an all-women cigar smoking group at his home in Danli.

It was also a first for Smith. "Traveling with a group of women is one thing, but traveling with a group of cigar smoking women is another. Many of the women went on this trip not knowing anything about cigars and returned with a passion for it," Smith says.

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LETTER: HK's free-trade status will survive anti-smoking step ($$) 

The claim by Japan Tobacco's legal representative that a ban on the use of grossly misleading descriptors on tobacco products would ruin the city's free-trade image (October 7) can only be described as a desperate flight of fantasy.

The resistance from the cigarette-maker must not deflect the government or legislators from providing the community with the tightest possible tobacco-control measures to protect health. When Japan Tobacco contrived the brand name Mild Seven, it did so with the intention of masking the known lethality of the product. The claim that such a move should not now be a legitimate target for public health measures is untenable.

Michael Thomas, SC, should explain on behalf of his clients why it would be ethically justifiable to trade off nicotine addiction in young people and premature death at all ages against what they call "free trade".

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ASIL Insights: WTO Panel Rules on Geographical Indications 

In early April 2005, the WTO Appellate Body (AB) issued a ruling in an appeal of a case brought by Honduras against measures taken by the Dominican Republic in connection with the importation and internal sale of cigarettes.[1] One of the measures was a requirement that a tax stamp be affixed to all cigarettes.

The importance of this case stems from its analysis of Article XX(d) of the GATT 1994. Article XX , entitled "General Exceptions," allows WTO members to take 10 types of measures (listed in subparagraphs a-j) that would otherwise conflict with their WTO obligations, provided that specified conditions are met. Subparagraph (d) covers measures "necessary" to secure compliance with laws or regulations that are themselves consistent with the WTO. The Dominican Republic claimed its tax stamp requirement was covered by Article XX (d) because it was "necessary" to ensure compliance with tax and anti-cigarette smuggling laws.

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• Big Tobacco Beats Back RICO Claims 

Lawyers for five U.S. tobacco companies have persuaded the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to adopt a 225-year-old common law principle that bars three Latin American countries from suing them in U.S. courts.

That principle, called the revenue rule, prohibits one country from trying to enforce its own revenue laws in another country's courts.

In the defense's brief, Goodwin Proctor's Kenneth J. Parsigian, who represented the tobacco companies, cited cases from 225 years of Anglo-American jurisprudence

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• Tobacco Companies Win Smuggling Appeal 

Tobacco manufacturers have won an appeal challenging lawsuits by the governments of Belize, Ecuador and Honduras that claim the companies conspired to smuggle cigarettes into their countries to boost profits and evade taxes.

The racketeering suits against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard and Liggett boil down to attempts to enforce foreign tax claims in U.S. courts, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided, upholding an earlier ruling by a Miami federal judge throwing out the lawsuit.

The court ruled that the strategy violates 18th century English common law and cannot be pursued. The ruling Friday did not address whether the companies smuggled cigarettes.

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• Latin American Nations Claim Tobacco Cos. Violated RICO 

A centuries-old common-law rule may bar three Latin American nations from suing American tobacco companies under RICO in U.S. courts.

According to Kenneth J. Parsigian, who argued for the tobacco companies Tuesday before a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nations of Belize, Ecuador and Honduras don't have the right to sue his clients.

"No court anywhere in history, anywhere in the world, has ever allowed a claim like this to go forward," said Parsigian, of Boston's Goodwin Proctor.

The three countries have accused five tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Phillip Morris Cos. Inc. and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., of setting up "elaborate criminal schemes to move their tobacco products into the hands of smokers, well below the radar screen of [the countries'] regulatory infrastructure." According to the plaintiffs, the companies sold tobacco in the Latin American nations tax-free by moving it through shadow companies and smugglers.

They filed a complaint in a Florida state court, alleging money laundering and mail and wire fraud, among other things. . .

Perwin said his clients' right to recourse in the U.S. courts is established under the plain language of RICO.

"[The revenue rule] is obviously superseded by the plain meaning of the federal statute," he said. "The plain meaning of the statute covers our claim. No doubt about it."

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No court anywhere in history, anywhere in the world, has ever allowed a claim like this to go forward.
Kenneth J. Parsigian, who argued for the tobacco companies before a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against the suit by Belize, Ecuador and Honduras.

[The revenue rule] is obviously superseded by the plain meaning of the [RICO] federal statute. . . No doubt about it.
Joel S. Perwin, lawyer for the Latin American nations.