On 6 August 2018, the President of Uruguay Tabaré Vázquez issued an executive decree requiring tobacco product plain packaging and single presentation. As a global leader in tobacco control, Uruguay becomes the first country in Latin America to implement this measure, proven to discourage people, and more particularly children and young people, from taking up tobacco use.
Since 6 September 2018, all tobacco products sold in Timor-Leste are required to display one of the six official combined text and pictorial health warnings covering 85% of the front and 100% of the back of the packaging.
Timor-Leste has also made substantial though not complete progress towards plain packaging. Here are packaging restrictions taking effect 6 September 2018:
The price of cigarettes raised on 1 September 2018, following an increase of excise taxes by 12.5%. The Government of Australia, in the 2016-17 Budget had foreseen that a series of tobacco excise and excise equivalent customs duty increases be implemented over four years, at 12.5% each year. This tobacco taxation amendment entered into force in the 2017-18 financial year, with annual increases scheduled for each 1 September from 2017 to 2020. The measure is expected to raise $4.7 billion in net revenue by the end of this period.
The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Second Amendment Rules were published in India in April 2018. This regulation establishes the new round of pictorial health warnings to be printed in tobacco products packages, and came into force on 1 September 2018, ensuring compliance with the rotation mandated by Article 11 of the WHO FCTC and its implementation guidelines.
New tobacco prevalence data were issued at the launching of a new Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh. The findings indicate a significant reduction on all tobacco use, from 43.3% in 2009 to 35.3% in 2017 (8 percentage points).