The package of measures was introduced on No Smoking Day by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.
It would force large stores to keep cigarettes under the counter from 2012 and small stores to do so from 2015.
The consultation on plain packaging has been attacked on the grounds that it undermines trade mark rights and will increase counterfeiting.
But these arguments have already been debated as part of a consultation on the Tobacco Products Directive launched by the European Commission last year. The period for comments closed on December 17, having already been extended once. No comments or conclusions have yet been published.
"For one member state in Europe to go it alone poses difficult questions for the single market," said John Noble, director of the British Brands Group. "It could also increase illicit trade in the branded product, which would undermine the government's attempt to control access to tobacco products."
Trade mark lawyers, meanwhile, commented that it could lead to needless work if the UK was later forced to change its rules as a result of European measures.
In its consultation, the Commission suggested: "Manufacturers would only be allowed to print brand and product names, the quantity of the product, health warnings and other mandatory information such as security markings. The package itself would be plain coloured (such as white, grey or plain cardboard). The size and shape of the package could also be regulated."
Australia has also already gone though a consultation on the issue, in 2009. It is planning to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes in 2012. As part of the campaign against rules in Australia, tobacco company Philip Morris set up its own website, www.plain-packaging.com.
INTA, in its letter to the Australian government at the time, said that it would "encroach on the rights of trademark owners and their ability to properly and lawfully use their trademarks" as well as "limit the ability of the consumer to make informed decisions about the product they are purchasing".
Noble said: "To effectively confiscate trade mark rights like this is to take away from companies extremely valuable intellectual property that they have spent decades building up." It is estimated that tobacco companies hold around 155,000 trade marks around the world.
If trade marks are prevented from being used on cigarette packaging, they could be revoked for non-use after five years. "That might create issues if someone else used a previously registered trade mark in another class of goods, such as sweet cigarettes," said one trade mark lawyer.
Despite speculation in the mainstream press, there is no precedent for compensation for a trade mark being effectively confiscated.
But legislation could violate a country's obligations under TRIPs. This was spelt out in INTA's submission to the Australian government.
Such an action would have to be brought by one country against another at the WTO, but there has been speculation that the United States, as the country where most tobacco companies are headquartered, could see any legislation as an aggressive trade action.
The third problem brought up by the tobacco industry and trade mark associations is that plain packaging would make it easier to counterfeit goods. Not only would plain packaging be much easier to reproduce, but enforcement would be more difficult if all products were kept under the counter at stores.
INTA said in its Australian submission: "The potential increase in the trade of counterfeit goods is not only adverse to the interests of trademark owners, but also may lead to low quality, even dangerous, products being available in the Australian market."
The evidence on this is inconclusive, but equally there is little evidence than plain packaging reduces smoking. Reports by consultancy firm LECG as well as the British and Canadian governments all concluded that branding is not connected to people taking up smoking.
The Commission's consultation document can be seen here.
