FLER at APE

Recent inspections and cargo disruption have led some logistics operators in the China-U.S. vape trade to see early signs of another U.S. border crackdown on illicit e-cigarettes. With late April to early May viewed as a key risk window, the market is watching closely. The bigger question is not only whether enforcement will tighten, but whether it can be sustained.

Philippine officials said government agencies seized illegal vape products worth about PHP 3.6 million during a joint enforcement operation in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces on March 12.

Philip Morris International U.S. (PMI U.S.) announced that it will close the Swedish Match cigar manufacturing facility on Columbia Highway in Dothan, Alabama. The company said the decision reflects its need to maintain focus on offering reduced-risk, FDA-authorized smoke-free products to legal-aged adult nicotine users in the United States to help them move away from combustible cigarettes.

Russian public movement “Healthy Fatherland,” has proposed blocking access in Russia to online resources that sell vapes and nicotine-containing products remotely.

A Fifth Circuit panel upheld the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2021 final rule requiring companies seeking premarket authorization for new tobacco products to include information on health-risk investigations. In a published opinion, the court found FDA satisfied the Regulatory Flexibility Act’s procedural requirements and reasonably relied on the economic analysis from the 2016 “deeming rule” as a factual basis to certify limited impact on small businesses.

A proposal by New York Governor Kathy Hochul to impose a steep tax on nicotine pouches has drawn opposition from law-enforcement officials and business groups, who say it could expand the state’s illicit tobacco market. The measure was included in Hochul’s preliminary two-year USD 260 billion budget plan and would treat nicotine pouches like other tobacco products.