GENEVA (Reuters) - Smoking costs the global economy more than $1 trillion a year, and will kill one third more people by 2030 than it does now, according to a study by the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Cancer Institute published on Tuesday. 
 
 That cost far outweighs global revenues from tobacco taxes, which the WHO estimated at about $269 billion in 2013-2014. 
 
 “The number of tobacco-related deaths is projected to increase from about 6 million deaths annually to about 8 million annually by 2030, with more than 80 percent of these occurring in LMICs (low- and middle-income countries),” the study said. 
 
 Around 80 percent of smokers live in such countries, and although smoking prevalence was falling among the global population, the total number of smokers worldwide is rising, it said. 
 
 Health experts say tobacco use is the single biggest preventable cause of death globally. 
 
 “It is responsible for... likely over $1 trillion in health care costs and lost productivity each year,” said the study, peer-reviewed by more than 70 scientific experts. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: An ash tray with cigarette butts is pictured in Hinzenbach, Austria, February 5, 2012. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo 
 
 The economic costs are expected to continue to rise, and although governments have the tools to reduce tobacco use and associated deaths, most have fallen far short of using those tools effectively, said the 688-page report. 
 
 “Government fears that tobacco control will have an adverse economic impact are not justified by the evidence. The science is clear; the time for action is now.” 
 
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 Cheap and effective policies included hiking tobacco taxes and prices, comprehensive smoke-free policies, complete bans on tobacco company marketing, and prominent pictorial warning labels. 
 
 Tobacco taxes could also be used to fund more expensive interventions such as anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and support for cessation services and treatments, it said. 
 
 Governments spent less than $1 billion on tobacco control in 2013-2014, according to a WHO estimate. 
 
 Tobacco regulation meanwhile is reaching a crunch point because of a trade dispute brought by Cuba, Indonesia, Honduras and Dominican Republic against Australia’s stringent “plain packaging” laws, which enforce standardized designs on tobacco products and ban distinctive logos and colorful branding. 
 
 The World Trade Organization is expected to rule on the complaint this year. Australia’s policy is being closely watched by other countries that are considering similar policies, including Norway, Slovenia, Canada, Singapore, Belgium and South Africa, the study said. ||||| This article is over 3 years old 
 
 Tobacco giant fails in its bid to overturn laws using clause in 1993 Hong Kong bilateral trade deal after arbitration court rules it does not have jurisdiction 
 
 Australia has won an international legal battle to uphold its world-leading tobacco control measures, with Philip Morris failing in its long-running attempt to challenge plain packaging laws under a bilateral trade agreement with Hong Kong. 
 
 The decision could give other countries greater confidence to follow Australia’s lead in outlawing tobacco company logos on cigarette packets and moving to drab, uniform designs dominated by graphic health warnings. 
 
 Ireland passes plain packaging bill for cigarettes Read more 
 
 Philip Morris Asia Limited launched its challenge against the Australian government in 2011, seeking to rely on an argument that the ban on trademarks breached foreign investment provisions of Australia’s 1993 Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with Hong Kong. 
 
 But the arbitral tribunal has declined jurisdiction to hear the case, the company said in a statement issued on Friday. 
 
 The minister responsible for tobacco policy, Fiona Nash, said: “We welcome the unanimous decision by the tribunal agreeing with Australia’s position that it has no jurisdiction to hear Philip Morris’s claim.” 
 
 Philip Morris said it was reviewing the decision in detail to consider its next options, but sought to head off suggestions that other countries should follow suit. 
 
 “There is nothing in today’s outcome that addresses, let alone validates, plain packaging in Australia or anywhere else,” said Marc Firestone, Philip Morris International senior vice president and general counsel. 
 
 “It is regrettable that the outcome hinged entirely on a procedural issue that Australia chose to advocate instead of confronting head on the merits of whether plain packaging is legal or even works.” 
 
 But the Public Health Association of Australia welcomed the decision as “the best Christmas present for public health nationally and internationally”. 
 
 “Smoking in Australia is falling in adults, in children and by tobacco volume sales,” said the association’s chief executive, Michael Moore. 
 
 “Now the tobacco companies have lost another crucial legal bid to stop this life-saving measure. The message is loud and clear – plain packaging works, and it is here to stay.” 
 
 Tobacco companies challenge legality of UK plain packaging rules Read more 
 
 Professor Mike Daube, who chaired the government’s expert committee that recommended plain packaging, said the tobacco companies were “desperate to prevent plain packaging here and internationally because they know it works”. 
 
 Todd Harper, the chief executive of the Cancer Council Victoria, said the implementation of plain packaging on a global scale was “the worst nightmare of the tobacco industry”. 
 
 “Overnight we have heard that France will progress with plain packaging, marking yet another country to adopt this important tobacco control initiative,” he said. 
 
 “Other countries should feel confident that bullying tactics of big tobacco cannot stand in the way of public health measures.” 
 
 Australia’s plain packaging laws were introduced by Julia Gillard’s Labor government in 2011. The laws banned tobacco companies from displaying their distinctive colours, brand designs and logos on cigarette packs. 
 
 In 2012, the Australian high court rejected a domestic challenge against the laws brought by major tobacco companies. 
 
 The Australia-Hong Kong investment treaty at the heart of the international challenge contained the type of “investor-state dispute settlement mechanism” that has caused controversy in trade policy debates. 
 
 The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said Australia had “dodged a bullet” because of the jurisdictional ruling, but kept signing trade deals that gave corporations “the right to sue us for making laws that might impinge on a foreign corporation’s profits”. 
 
 Whish-Wilson renewed his concerns about the 12-country Trans Pacific Partnership and said such clauses were “the Damocles Sword hanging over Australia’s sovereignty and our right to legislate in the public interest”. 
 
 Labor’s health spokeswoman, Catherine King, seized on the ruling as a vindication of the strategy adopted by the former health ministers Nicola Roxon and Tanya Plibersek. 
 
 “As feared by tobacco companies, Australia’s lead is now creating an unstoppable momentum with France today joining Britain and Ireland in voting to introduce plain packaging, and dozens of other countries set to follow,” King said. 
 
 The permanent court of arbitration is yet to publish the decision outlining its reasons. 
 
 But in legal arguments (PDF) about why the claims under the Hong Kong agreement should fail, Australia said the company bringing the challenge – Philip Morris Asia – had acquired its shares in Philip Morris Australia in early 2011 “in the full knowledge” of the government’s decision in 2010 to introduce plain packaging. 
 
 Guardian Australia has been told the decision means the arbitration is over, other than any proceedings related to the recovery of Australia’s costs and subject to any appeal Philip Morris Asia may seek to launch in Singapore, which is the seat of the arbitration. 
 
 The government still faces a separate challenge against plain packaging in the World Trade Organisation after Ukraine, Honduras, Indonesia, Dominican Republic and Cuba argued the measure breached Australia’s international obligations. A decision is expected in the second half of 2016. 
 
 The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, and the trade minister, Andrew Robb, said the government was committed to defending the international challenges because the plain packaging laws were “an important and legitimate measure” designed to protect public health.
– Smoking costs the global economy an eye-popping $1 trillion a year, and despite anti-tobacco efforts, deaths are rising, Reuters reports. Tobacco-related illnesses will claim 8 million lives per year by 2030, up from the current 6 million, warns a new study by the World Health Organization and the National Cancer Institute. There are more people lighting up in middle- to low-income countries, which is where 80% of projected smoking deaths will occur in the coming years. Lost productivity and health care costs top $1 trillion per year (that's 12 zeros), a figure that dwarfs that $1 billion governments spent on anti-tobacco measures in the 2013-14 year. Governments could do more to curb smoking and reduce their health-care costs, the authors say. Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death, notes Reuters. Global efforts to curb tobacco use have fallen short, the study says. "Government fears that tobacco control will have an adverse economic impact are not justified by the evidence," the authors write. "The science is clear; the time for action is now." They suggest boosting tobacco taxes and the price per pack along with better anti-smoking policies, warning labels and a total ban on marketing tobacco. Australia's strict plain-packaging laws banning cigarette company logos have been praised by health experts as a model for other nations, though the policy has sparked legal challenges. Australia won a legal fight against Philip Morris in 2015 to keep cigarette packs there as drab as possible, per the Guardian. (Smoke just a little bit? It'll still kill you.)