Apparently one hundred and twenty applications have been filed with the FDA by cigarette manufacturers since 2012 (under a similar "approval" process).
Anyone care to guess how many new cigarettes got approved in the past four years?
Drumroll....
Two.
Those two were only approved after Lorilland hired some high price attorneys and successfully sued the FDA. The FDA had to approve _something_ to demonstrate to the court that the approval process wasn't a total sham.
Of course it is a sham--buy hey this is DC we are talking about here.
The OP on this thread has it correct.
This is the law of the land unless Congress and the President change it (or Congress overrides a Presidential veto). Most cigar growers, blenders, manufacturers and distributors will have found other day jobs long before that happens.
Most cigar shops will close.
I just pulled out my old Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars, NC 2006 version to see what the grandfathering smokes would be.
More than 95% of the smokes in the book no longer exist.
So what is left?
Fuentes (some of them including Opus X and Anejos and Hemingways)
Padrons (most of those)
La Flor Dominicana 2000, Ligero, Double Ligero
Litto Gomez
Oliva O (none of the others)
Davidoffs-NC
CAO Brazilia, Criollo, Gold, Italia, MX2 (that's all)
Camacho Corojo (none of the others)
Don Pepin Garcia Blacks (do they make those still?--none of the others)
Rocky Patel Sun Grown (and Edge and 1990 and 1992 vintage if they still make them)
plus a bunch of Altadis (boo!-except Partagas black I like)
FYI.