Hong Kong vendors warn of protests if larger warnings are printed on cigarette packs

Vendors warn they will protest if the government goes ahead with a plan requiring health warnings on cigarette packets to cover 85 per cent of the surface.

They say the measure, to be fully implemented next April, could hit their business hard because it will boost the trade in illicit tobacco and if the packets are too obscured make it hard to tell if products are counterfeit or not.

The proposal was first submitted by the government in 2015 and an amendment order is expected to be tabled to the Legislative Council on Wednesday.

Bacon Liu Sair-ching, chairman of the Coalition of Hong Kong Newspaper and Magazine Merchants, said they would try to lobby officials to delay the plan.

“We don’t see what the government can achieve by making the health warning cover 85 per cent of the packaging surface. It will only leave too little room for other information, like the brand of the cigarette,” he said.

“It only brings us more trouble and hits our business. Smokers can simply switch to buying illicit cigarettes. We vendors shall not rule out further protests if the government does not heed our call.”