| The Tobacco Reference Guide |
| by David Moyer, MD. |
| Chapter 31 Tobacco exports, imports and smuggling |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour |
| Tobacco exports, imports and smuggling: Smuggling |
| globalink (artefact pour saut de ligne) |
| An August 25, 1997 New York Times front page article was entitled "Cigarette |
| Makers are Seen as Aiding Rise in Smuggling. Tobacco Giants Deny Role in Illegal |
| Trade; Inquiries Show There May Be One." The estimated number of cigarettes |
| smuggled worldwide has increased from 100 billion in 1989 to 280 billion in 1995, or |
| 28% of the one trillion cigarettes exported each year by all countries manufacturing |
| cigarettes. The manufacturers benefit because they receive the same price for |
| cigarettes even in contraband markets; the smuggling costs governments $16 billion a |
| year in lost tax revenue, and the cheaper cigarettes undermine initiatives to reduce |
| smoking. Companies commonly sell "huge quantities of top brands to traders and |
| dealers who are little more than pipelines to the smugglers." As well, industry |
| employees have at times had a significant role in stimulating the smuggling. Two |
| organized crime groups in Italy make $500 million a year by smuggling in Marlboro |
| cigarettes that they buy from Swiss dealers. |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| The difference between global cigarette exports and imports increased from 137 |
| billion in 1989 to 324 billion in 1994. Most of these "missing" cigarettes are |
| smuggled. |
| International Union Against Cancer, 1996 |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| "Smuggling helps the multinational companies because it creates a kind of illegal |
| introductory price for their brands - far below what the legal products are selling for. |
| This helps 'soften' the market up for a bigger sales assault... WHO estimates that |
| about one-third of the cigarettes produced in 1994 were moved from the legal market |
| into the smuggling economy - a 300% increase since 1989. Cigarette smuggling is |
| now thought to be costing governments some $16.2 billion annually." |
| World Watch, July-August 1997, p. 24 |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| Page 12 of 18 |
| globalink (artefact pour saut de ligne) |
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