Tourists will be unaffected by Hong Kong’s new proposed control measures on tobacco products, an official has said, promising that such policies will strike a balance between protecting public health and the economy.
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Deputy Secretary for Health Eddie Lee Lik-kong said on Saturday that authorities had already taken tourists’ needs into account when drafting the new measures, adding that their effects on the economy would be “minimal”.
A day earlier, the government gazetted an amendment that outlined 10 short-term measures aimed at further curbing the smoking rate. It will be submitted to the Legislative Council for its first reading on Wednesday.
The measures include plans to make it illegal for people to possess or use alternative smoking products in public by April 30 of next year.
They also cover an expected ban on the sale of conventional smoking products with flavours other than menthol from the second quarter of 2027.
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Critics have said that some of the measures, particularly those concerning alternative and flavoured tobacco products, would harm the local economy by discouraging tourism.