Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (
"Renowned brand names are company assets. If we do have to change it, it will cause great losses and jeopardize our corporate operations," said Chan Shih-chu (
On Wednesday, the Executive Yuan suggested an amendment to the Tobacco Hazards Act (
The amendment is to be submitted to the legislature soon for approval.
It is expected that Long Life and imported Mild Seven cigarettes, which take up 40 percent and 30 percent respectively of the nation's NT$62.5 billion (US$2.0 billion) annual cigarette market, would bear the brunt of the new rules.
Defending the company's right to retain the name "Long Life" on packaging, Chan said the new amendment would not be applied retroactively because the trademark had existed since 1959.
The company's labor union will also plead with lawmakers to ensure that the company's 7,000 employees can keep their jobs, Chan said.
According to Taiwan Tobacco's statistics, Long Life cigarettes contribute NT$25 billion in annual revenue, or one-third of the company's total sales.
"We hope the government will have second thoughts on green-lighting such a controversial regulation as this because it involves too many people and will lead to a reshuffle of the cigarette market," Chan said.
Generally a two-year grace period is given for affected companies to clear up stocks and prepare new designs.
The proposed amendment also casts a shadow on Taiwan Tobacco's plan to tap China's lucrative market, which consumes one-third of the world's cigarettes, Chan said.
The application process with Chinese authorities is under way, and the company expects to ship Long Life cigarettes across the Taiwan Strait as early as the end of the year.
"If `Long Life' is to be short-lived, I'm afraid that China will not accept it either," Chan said.
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