Resolution 160/NQ-CP: Where Nicotine Pouches Sit in Vietnam's Novel Tobacco Ban

On 30 July 2026 the Vietnamese government endorsed Resolution No. 160/NQ-CP, the policy framework for amending the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms. Reporting on it lists the products it covers as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and other novel tobacco products. Oral nicotine pouches are not in that named list. Whether they end up inside it depends entirely on how the last four words get defined, and that definition does not exist yet.

That gap is the entire story, and it is why this page does not end with a verdict. We sell nicotine pouches in Vietnam, so we are not a neutral party and you should not take a legal conclusion from us in either direction. What follows is what the published texts say, with dates, so you can watch the same thing we are watching.

What Resolution 160/NQ-CP covers

The resolution endorses a policy framework rather than enacting a prohibition by itself. The reported scope is broad on conduct: production, trading, storage, transportation, advertising, promotion, sponsorship and use of the covered products, plus a prohibition on displaying them at wholesale and retail points of sale.

The display clause is worth pausing on, because it is the part that reaches shops rather than users. A point-of-sale display ban changes how a product can be merchandised even where the product itself remains on sale, and it is a measure the WHO has asked Vietnam to apply to tobacco generally, not only to novel products.

Reporting is equally clear that the work is unfinished: the amended law is still expected to define the regulated products, the restrictions and the enforcement responsibilities. A framework resolution that says "other novel tobacco products" without a definitions article is not yet a rule anyone can apply to a specific product on a specific shelf.

What it does not say

It does not name oral nicotine pouches in the product list quoted in reporting. Health officials have cited pouches as an emerging product when arguing for the measures, which is a different thing from a statute naming them, and the difference matters here more than it usually does.

It is also worth being precise about what a nicotine pouch is, because the category names in this legislation are built around a physical process. An e-cigarette heats a liquid and produces an inhaled aerosol. A heated tobacco product heats processed tobacco leaf. A tobacco-free oral pouch does neither: it is fleece, nicotine, plant fibre, flavouring, water and a pH regulator, held between lip and gum, with no device, no combustion, no leaf and nothing inhaled. Whether "novel tobacco product" is drafted to follow the tobacco material or to follow the nicotine is the drafting decision that settles this.

The draft that does name pouches

Separately from the resolution, the Ministry of Health's draft amendment — in the version dated 20 July 2026 — adds a category of "other new tobacco products" and names nicotine pouches in it, alongside inhalable nicotine products and shisha. Resolution 11/2026/UBTVQH16 moved that draft from the April 2026 session to the second National Assembly session in October 2026. Reporting puts the amended law's effective date at 1 July 2027, with the prohibition on new tobacco products from 1 January 2027.

So the honest summary of the two documents together is this: the framework resolution leaves the category open, and the health ministry's draft fills it in a way that includes pouches. Neither is in force. A draft is not a law, text changes between draft and vote, and votes go both ways — but the direction of travel here is not ambiguous, and pretending otherwise would be doing you a disservice.

What the WHO has asked for

The World Health Organization has been explicit. In a statement covered by Viet Nam News, WHO urged stronger action to protect children and young people from tobacco and nicotine addiction, and its asks for Vietnam include a comprehensive ban that names nicotine pouches alongside e-cigarette parts and components, a point-of-sale display ban, stronger pack warnings, removal of designated indoor smoking areas, and enforcement of existing smoke-free rules. Dr Angela Pratt, the WHO Representative in Vietnam, is the named voice on it.

WHO's own projection for the package is 2.1 million fewer smokers in Vietnam by 2031 and around 700,000 premature deaths prevented over the following decades. Those are WHO's figures for tobacco-control reform as a whole, not a measurement of any one product category, and we quote them because they are the stated basis for the policy rather than because we are in a position to check them.

Enforcement is already moving on the named products

The legislative work is not happening in isolation. In July 2026 authorities in Hanoi opened a public reporting channel for illegal e-cigarette activity, which reporting framed as enforcement moving from legislation into local action. The Ministry of Health's stated aim was a stronger legal framework for new tobacco products and for what it described as increasingly sophisticated marketing, with youth exposure given as the justification.

That campaign is aimed at e-cigarettes and heated tobacco — the two categories already prohibited by Resolution 173/2024/QH15 since 1 January 2025 — and the reporting does not distinguish or name oral pouches. It matters anyway, because it shows the enforcement machinery for this class of product being built and used before the amended law arrives.

What this means if you buy pouches in Vietnam

Three practical points, none of which is a prediction.

• Nothing in force today names pouches. Resolution 173/2024/QH15 lists e-cigarettes and heated tobacco. The Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms No. 09/2012/QH13 defines tobacco products by reference to tobacco material. Neither names oral nicotine pouches, and Resolution 160/NQ-CP has not changed that as of the date on this page.
• October 2026 is the date to watch. That is the National Assembly session the draft was moved to. If you want one calendar entry out of this article, it is that one.
• Buy from somewhere that will tell you when it changes. This is self-interested advice and we are flagging it as such. But a seller that has never mentioned the draft to you is a seller that will not mention the vote either.

Our position

We sell these products to adults aged 18 and over, with age verification at entry. We make no health claims for them: nicotine is addictive, and pouches are not a medicine or a therapy. On the law, we state the dated text of the instruments and we do not offer a legal opinion, because a retailer's opinion on its own product's legality is worth nothing to you and we would rather be useful than reassuring.

If the October session changes the position, this page gets updated with the new date rather than quietly rewritten. Our standing explainer on the underlying question is Are nicotine pouches legal in Vietnam, and the companion piece on the vape ban is here.

General information, not legal advice. Sources read and page reviewed 1 August 2026: Tobacco Reporter on Resolution 160/NQ-CP (30 July 2026); Viet Nam News on the WHO statement; 2Firsts on Hanoi's reporting campaign (8 July 2026).