@schatz @pennysmalls @Rossum
I hope you guys are right. I read the proposed Deeming Reg's and nothing
in the proposal indicated to me it was a all or nothing deal.
Yes, I do to Skoony.
The Intent document that was posted last year that opened the comment period did have an option to exclude "premium" cigars. I recall there was some open-ended definition as to what "premium" meant from a cost-per-cigar perspective. I also recall seeing a ton of comments to the FDA from the cigar community, probably outnumbering our comments by quite a bit.
I think that many of us are assuming that the FDA has sent a final deeming rule to OIRA (which we don't have access too, even though it's supposed to be an "open" process...) and that OIRA will either a) accept them, or b) send them back to the FDA for revisions and resubmittal. I'm far from an expert, but I'm not sure if OIRA can accept it piecemeal, in other words, say that they accept the deeming for e-cigs but deny it for cigars; again, this supposedly "open" process seems to be all but open, so I'm not sure any of us really know.
I read in the Califf Blog "premium" cigars may be exempt from the regs.
Priorities – Teamwork to Achieve Common Goals | FDA Voice
This is interesting. Obviously there is a pathway to eliminate premium cigars from the deeming as it stands today. Does Cuba only produce "premium" (which = expensive) cigars, I wonder? Or, would they also want to sell non-premium (less expensive) cigars in the US as well.... I don't know enough about the cigar market to have a clue.
EDIT: There are, indeed two options in front of OIRA. From Reginfo.gov:
"The proposed rule consists of two co-proposals, option 1 and option 2. The proposed option 1 deems all products meeting the statutory definition of "tobacco product" except accessories of a proposed deemed tobacco product to be subject to chapter IX of the FD&C Act. Option 1 also proposes additional provisions that would apply to proposed deemed products as well as to certain other tobacco products.
Option 2 is the same as option 1 except that it exempts premium cigars."
