The Pipe Tobacco Council, a trade organization of pipe tobacco manufacturers, has responded to the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s (TTB) previously published request for comments to distinguish between pipe tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco for federal excise tax purposes based on the physical characteristics of the two tobacco products. The deadline for comment submissions ended yesterday, the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) reported.
The Pipe Tobacco Council submitted its comments including six different physical characteristics of legitimate pipe tobacco and proposed four objective and enforceable standards including total reducing sugars by weight, moisture content by weight minimum, a tobacco cut meeting or exceeding 1/16th of an inch in width and measuring the height of pressed tobacco pieces.
In addition, the Pipe Tobacco Council has proposed that the final TTB rule include a provision, which establishes a rebuttable presumption based on whether the tobacco in question meets one of these four objective standards and/or whether the product was regularly sold under a pre-existing brand name, trade name or trademark predominately associated with pipe tobacco or RYO tobacco before January 1, 2009.
Source: NATO
