The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: The WHO FCTC couldn't succeed until every party devotes to implementing it. Except the determination of the Government, the support of the Legislative and the public will be the crucial element to transform FCTC into domestic legislation. During the process of drafting and legislating, the issues of is-ought gap will appear. After ratifying on March 30, 2005, the Minister of Taiwan has submitted the draft amendment of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act to the Legislative in Apple 27, 2005. The draft amendment is not only simply adopted FCTC, but also based on the survey of public opinion toward these measures. Even without participating in FCTC, the draft amendment shows how FCTC will be materialized in Taiwan by its own efforts.

Methods: The effort focused on: the mechanism to raise price of tobacco by levying surcharge; the difficulty in regulating smoke-free environment and work places; the argument of tobacco advertisement and promotion; the ban of using misleading wording. By analyzing the issues confronted in Taiwan, the author wants to illustrate the aspects of to be and ought to be in tobacco control regulations.

Results: The evaluating and adjusting system of tobacco surcharge will be established to raise tobacco price gradually. The smoke free places will be listed one by one in catalog to avoid vague definition and argument in practice. To list the category of tobacco advertisement and promotion will be more acceptable than using the wording totally banning. The compromise of prohibiting misleading wording in the Legislative seems to be inevitable.