The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will publish in the next edition of Federal Register that it will move proposed regulations around Nicotine Limits and Tobacco Product Manufacturing Practices (TPMP) to “Long Term Action” status. Essentially this means, the new Trump Administration will not move forward with these rules.
The official announcement of the change in status around Nicotine Limits and TPMP will be published in the Federal Register as a part of the Unified Agenda. The Unified Agenda contains a master list of all regulations that will be taken up over the final year. Typically the Unified Agenda is publishes later in the year.
Last week, the Biden Administration announced proposed rule making around nicotine limits. At the time of the announcement, premium cigars were temportaily exempt from that these proposed rules. This was due to the August 9, 2023, ruling of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, which vacated the deeming rule. The ruling is currently being appealed, and once the deemed status is resolved, the FDA says it will consider any impacts and take additional steps in the future.
In 2023, the FDA proposed is regulations around tobacco product manufacturng processes. This would implement regulations around manufacture, design, packing and storage of tobacco products products. The rules are aimed at cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, and vape products. From a cigar industry standpoint, these regulations target cigar factories and pre-industry facilities both domestic and foreign. These were subject to a comment period, but the final rule has not been implemented.
Also occurring this week, the FDA withdrew its regulations on how it would ban flavored cigars.
