WTO dents U.S. ban on clove cigarettes

The World Trade Organization on Wednesday dealt a blow to a U.S. law barring the sale of clove-flavored cigarettes to discourage children from smoking, saying it was unfair to Indonesia because menthol cigarettes can still be sold in the United States.

"The United States is very disappointed with the outcome of this dispute," Nkenge Harmon, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, said. "The ban on cigarettes with flavors is part of landmark U.S. legislation to combat the public health crisis caused by tobacco products."

Indonesia, the world's top producer of clove cigarettes and the source of the vast majority of those smoked in the United States, brought the World Trade Organization case in April 2010.

The U.S. Congress passed legislation during President Barack Obama's first year in office in 2009 banning the production and sale of cigarettes with flavors such as clove, cinnamon, strawberry or cherry, but not regular or menthol cigarettes.

The WTO appellate body on Wednesday said the ban on clove cigarettes was discriminatory because a similar product, menthol cigarettes, can still be sold in the United States.

Are Menthol Cigarettes Riskier Than Non-Menthol? People who smoke menthol cigarettes are no more likely - and may actually be less likely - to develop lung cancer than people who smoke non-menthol cigarettes, a study suggests.

The study, published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, comes out nearly a week after an FDA advisory panel stated that removing menthol cigarettes from the market may improve public health because menthol cigarettes may be more difficult to quit than non-menthol cigarettes and may be more enticing to young smokers because of their minty taste.

Menthol cigarettes are also more popular with African-American smokers, who have a higher incidence of lung cancer.

Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the WTO "wrongly concluded that a decision by the U.S. Congress on how best to protect America's children from flavored cigarettes that serve as starter products for youth violates the nation's trade obligations."

A California Democrat who played a leading role in passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, said the decision had "serious public health implications" for U.S. efforts to reduce teen smoking, but vowed the clove cigarette ban would remain.

Why we need a ban on menthol cigarettes No action the Food and Drug Administration and the Obama administration could take would do more to save lives, reduce health-care costs and curb the tobacco industry’s exploitation of children and minority teens than to ban menthol flavoring in cigarettes.

- Eighty percent of adolescent African American smokers use menthol cigarettes.