On May 3, Cuba filed its first-ever trade dispute with the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO), over Australia’s new anti-tobacco law.

That law — the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act — requires unattractive plain packaging and graphic health advisories on any tobacco products sold in Australia, while banning the “use of logos, brand imagery, and promotional text.” It also imposes strict limitations on the use of brand names.

If the two countries are unable to resolve this issue within 60 days, a dispute resolution panel would then be set up, with Australia being subject to trade penalties (such as higher duties on its goods) in the event the WTO rules against it.

Cuba isn’t the only country to challenge Australia’s stringent anti-tobacco law through the WTO. The Dominican Republic and Honduras which also produce cigars as well as cigarette-exporting Ukraine have also complained about it.

Simply put, Central American and Caribbean cigar producers worry that Australia’s anti-tobacco law could be replicated in other markets, leading to lower export revenues.

Cuba may find itself having to work with cigar-making rivals like the Dominican Republic, to fight these laws more effectively. Experts say that means Cuba will have to stop filing frivolous suits against such rivals.

In the past, Habanos SA and Cubatabaco acted against Dominican cigar makers who sold smokes in the U.S. market with labels that used “Cuban-sounding names.”

In 2010, Cubatabaco sued a company based in the Dominican city of Santiago de los Caballeros that produces Pinar del Río (PDR) cigars.

The petition was filed at the Washington-based Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in order to cancel PDR’s U.S. trademark, so that the Dominicans wouldn’t be able to sell Pinar del Río cigars in the United States.

Frank Herrera, PDR’s lawyer, was compelled to fight Cubatabaco’s TTAB action, even though there had never been a “Pinar del Rio” cigar label either in Cuba nor anywhere else, before his Dominican clients Abe Flores and Juan E. Rodríguez created it.

“They [Cuban cigar labels] dedicated millions of dollars to legal actions,” he told CubaNews. “Most of their battles have been with small labels. So rather than fight, [these small non-Cuban brands] would just abandon or default.”

The Dominican government, concerned about the future of its $500 million tobacco industry, is already trying to reach out to its Cuban competitors.

“We welcome Cuba’s decision to join the list of developing countries fighting for the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of tobacco workers,” it said in a press release. “Destroying the fabric of trademarks, high-quality brands and geographical indications is not an effective way to reduce smoking. Cuba is recognizing that Australia’s unfounded law will only drive consumers away from its high-end products and destroy a major part of the country’s cultural heritage.”