FDA regulations ban on clove cigarettes Indonesia may protest to WTO..

June 19, 2009 - Indonesia, the largest maker of clove cigarettes, may complain to the World Trade Organization about U.S. legislation that gives regulators expanded powers to regulate tobacco products, including possible bans on flavors such as clove but NOT menthol..

Indonesian Trade Minister: Mari Pangestu We’ll be having consultations,” said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “If we feel that this is treated discriminately, we’ll of course take it to the normal processes in the World Trade Organization (WTO).”

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act bans clove but spares menthol. Indonesia - dispute with U.S. over banning the use of clove in cigarettes.. Menthols accounted for a quarter of the roughly 370 billion cigarettes smoked domestically in 2006 and are more popular here than anywhere else in the world. Menthol cigarettes have been linked to 14.6 percent of all African-American deaths in 2006. The next most popular flavored cigarette, clove, accounts for .09 percent of the market. Those cigarettes are banned under the bill. Indonesia, which provides 99 percent of the clove cigarettes to the U.S. market, has complained to the U.S. trade representative about the disparity with menthol. If Indonesia brings a protectionist complaint to the World Trade Organization, it would compel the U.S. government to prove cloves were banned for health reasons. Namely, the United States would have to show that the flavor of cloves enhances cigarettes’ addictive properties. If it can’t, the ban could be considered a trade violation.

The legislation, which was approved by the House of Representatives and Senate earlier this month, offers a concession on menthol, the most popular flavored cigarette in the U.S. Pangestu’s comments reiterate Indonesian objections made last month.

“We feel this is discriminating against cloves because menthol is not considered,” Pangestu said today from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Cloves, native to Indonesia, are a spice taken from the dried flower buds of a tropical tree.

Indonesia exports about $500 million worth of clove cigarettes, known as kreteks, a year, according to Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, Indonesia’s ambassador in Washington. About a fifth of the shipments go to the U.S., and Indonesia says its cigarettes make up 99 percent of the U.S. market for the product.

Pangestu said in May that a ban on kreteks would hurt Indonesian clove farmers and violate WTO rules. The Southeast Asian nation has about 4 million clove farmers.

To contact the reporters on this story: Naila Firdausi in Jakarta at nfirdausi@bloomberg.net; Haslinda Amin in Singapore at hamin1@bloomberg.net

Kretek (pronounced /ˈkriːtɛk/) are cigarettes made with a complex blend of tobacco, cloves and a flavoring 'sauce'. The word "kretek" itself is an onomatopoetic term (the formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.) for the crackling sound of burning cloves.

Reference: Indonesia May Complain to WTO About U.S. Tobacco Legislation

Related news brief: Indonesia - dispute with U.S. over banning the use of clove in cigarettes..