The source said the Council of State had based its planned ruling on the "letter of the law", not the intention behind it.

"It is going to say that Section 30 of the Act will exempt factory-made or imported alcoholic-drink products from the ban," the source said.

The ban, which had been due to take effect on December 3, proposes banning most alcohol ads. However, the FDA and Health Ministry move has been aggressively opposed by alcoholic drink makers, which have sought every means to stop the ban.

If the FDA is unable to enforce the ban, the Public Health Ministry is expected to seek legal changes or to introduce the Alcohol Control Act to continue pushing for a ban - which the ministry and many groups strongly support.

Meanwhile, the Lawyers Council said yesterday the proposed ban had double standards and may favour particular companies.

The council's opinion was given at the request of the Federation on Alcohol Control of Thailand (Fact), which sought an interpretation of new FDA regulations.

The council also stated that the total ban on alcohol advertising was not in line with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) principles of fair business treatment.

Fact's general secretary Boon-chuay Tongcharoenpulporn said members of the group may seek legal ways to fight the ban.

"This will put Thailand at risk of breaching the WTO's 'national treatment' principle and trade retaliation from the WTO," Boonchuay claimed.

Fact's membership includes local business associations on retailing, restaurants, tourism, wine and other alcoholic beverages.

The advertising ban also covers the display of corporate names related to alcohol products, such as the term "brewery".

Boonchuay asked the government how the new regulations could ban the word "brewery" in advertising but not the term "beverage".

The two major alcohol firms in Thailand are Boonrawd Brewery and the Singapore-listed Thai Beverage.

He questioned if the ban was meant to favour some companies. For an example, the regulations forbid advertising containing an alcohol product logo but does not prohibit the advertising of drinking water and soda products that bear the same logo.

"This makes companies with only alcohol products lose advantage to those with both drinking water and alcohol products," he said.

According to the intellectual property law, if an alcohol product and drinking water use the same logo, the logo is treated as the same trademark, he said.

Boonchuay also questioned why the total ban would not cover the advertising of alcohol products during live international broadcasts to Thailand.

"The business community needs fair competition and fair regulations, and we believe that any unfair regulations will soon be cancelled," he said.

He also claimed that the FDA had no authority to introduce regulations to ban alcohol advertising.

Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said his ministry would convene a meeting of all provincial public-health chiefs on Monday to brief them about how to enforce the ban.

"We can expect some hiccups in the very beginning because this is a new measure. However, with close monitoring, the measure will be efficiently implemented in the future," he said.

Mongkol said the ban was proposed for public benefit, especially for youths.

He said the ban on alcohol ads could begin with a lenient phase during which offenders would just receive warnings.

"But after a period of time, we will be tough with enforcing the ban and offenders would be bound to face legal action," he said.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn,

Duangkamon

Sajirawattanakul

The Nation