Cigarette Packets without Logos - 담배포장의 상표제거

   Australia will become the first nation to ban brand name on the cigarette packaging and will raise tobacco taxes to combat smoking. The nation's Prime Minister even called smoking the biggest cause of premature death. A 25 percent tobacco tax increase will apply from midnight tonight and laws to mandate plain packaging will be introduced in 18 months. Some experts say companies like Philip Morris International Inc. may gain as much as $4 billion in compensation because the laws may mean they lose their tradmark. Yet, the prime Minister said the government won't pay compensation to tobacco companies. 

 

   Under the new law, packets will display only health warning and basic product information for retailers. The government excise is currently set at 40 cents per cigarette and rises twice per year based on inflation rate increases. Australia's tax on tobacco are 62 percent of the total cost, compared with 80 percents in France.

 

   Smoking kills some 15,000 Australians a year and the government aims to cut the rate of smokers to 10 percent or less of the adult population from 16.6 percent. Sales of tobacco products were worth $9.2 billion in 2009, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The number of Australians who smoke has more than halved in the past 20 years. Australia has the third-lowest rate of smokers in the deveoped world, behind Sweden and the U.S. 

 

  1) premature : 때 이른, 시기상조의    cf. ~   death : 조기사망.  The baby was four weeks premature -> 4주 먼저 태어나다.

  2) mandate : n. (국제연맹의) 위임통치, 의무, 명령.   v. 명령하다, 강제하다.

  3) excise [éksaiz] : 소비세 물품세.  cf. special excise tax on liquor : 주류에 부과된 특별소비세.

  4) be worth : ~ 의 가치가 있다.   cf.  They were estimated to be worth $30 million