Source: El Sol de Mexico - 13/09/2010

Montreal, Canada. (OEM-Informex) .- Although some legislators and authorities are promoting in Mexico to increase the price of cigarettes by three weights to try to inhibit tobacco consumption, I believe that these types of measures have shown their failure , even in developed countries like Canada, from where an organized hamper has been detonated that has up to 33 per market and even finances terrorist activities.

In this way, in this industrialized economy, with all the measures adopted, recommended by the World Health Organization (WTO), three out of every three cigarettes are smuggled products, piracy and merchandising robot, without complying with minimum standards of quality and health, to the detriment of consumers, especially young people.

In this sense, practically in any public area of ​​this city it is relatively easy to acquire an illicit product, as it costs more than a thousand per cent cheaper than a legal one (ten cents against dollars per cigarette), and teenage students find themselves as the main market for organized crime.

“The illicit market does not warn, it detonates,” said Michael Gadbois, leader of Canada's Association of Convenience Partners, who said that 10 percent of the companies he represents have closed in the last three years in the face of inability to draw the unfair competence that generates illegal cigarettes.

This is how today in Canada, the distinguished Group of the Siete most developed countries in the world, faces a black tobacco market that reaches a thousand 300 million Canadian dollars (16 thousand 250 million Mexican pesos), with a loss it costs around one thousand 600 million dollars (about 20 thousand million pesos) per concept of impuestos, the result of measures that Mexico, nation in development, is in the process of implementing.

* A decade of excessive tobacco control

At the beginning of the present decade, the authorities in Canada, in order to inhibit the consumption of tobacco, started to adopt a series of measures. For example, in the year 2000, they forced cigarettes to include on the cover of the cigarette holder an image alluding to the damage that causes smoking, which will cover 50 percent of the front of the pack.

Since some provinces in Canada prohibit the exhibition of products in established businesses, in order to reduce the link between customers and these products.

In addition to the years (from 2008) this measure applies to the rest of the Canadian territory, to the extent that today people in the world do not even show publicity the image with respect to the sale of cigarettes, only you can place a letter with the product name and the corresponding price.

Between 2003 and 2005 the authorities also agreed to prohibit smoking in public places, just like in Mexico City.

In parallel, the government of each of the provinces of Canada determined to increase the tax burden on cigarettes, in order to induce less tobacco consumption. For example, in Quebec, I charge cigarettes from 12 per cent in 2000 to 26 per cent in 2002. In Ontario from 11 to more than 30 per cent from 2000 to 2006.

Today, cigarettes in Canada register a tax charge equivalent to 75% for the price of the product's sales price. In Mexico there are a little more than 60 percent.

Previously, I expound Michael Gadbois, derived from the aggressive measures adopted by Gobierno, the cigarette sales in the convenience stores started to descend in an important way, to the extent that 10 per cent of the total of the businesses have had that close in a definite way, leaving no more than 15 workers, tobacco sales represent up to 40% of the income from this type of business.

In this way, the recall of the Gobierno by concept of sale of tobacco, as it was expected, also descended in an important way. In 2005, it was possible to recoup a thousand 400 million canadian dollars, for 2009 bajó has a thousand million.

At this point in time it all seemed to indicate that the measures implemented were bringing about the desired results: inhibiting tobacco consumption.

* The black market appears

Indeed, if the sales in the established trade and the entry of taxes for the sale of iban cigarettes at the bottom, everything seemed to indicate that consumption was down. The señales pointed out that the measures adopted were usually correct.

However, the number of cigarette butts that smoked the smokers had been kept out of public places; the number of pillars in the reflection and the downturn in sales and recall: it was clear, the black market started to cover the prevailing tobacco demand. Decide, consumption remains stable.

Also, the cigarettes did not correspond to the products sold in stores and convenience stores, because of the proliferation of unregistered products. It was obvious, smuggling, piracy and the cigarrillos robot was present.

Peter Seeman, of the National Coalition against Contraband, I expound that the excessive measures provoked a hueco in the supply of cigarettes, which was approved by bands of criminals perfectly structured, even at international level.

This situation, explained the expert, caused the proliferation of illegal cigarettes in the northern border of the United States, as they manufacture and introduce their products to Canada across the great lakes that divide both countries, to decide, via smuggling.

This illicit industry finds itself in the Indian reserves of Canada, known as Primeras Naciones, an insignificant ally, whenever these spaces (operating under a similar system of uses and customary that exist in some communities in Mexico) within the authority canadiense y, moreover, do not pay impuestos.

In such a way, in this kind of spaces and from where the consumers the traffickers acquire the very low cost of cigarette packs that, for obvious reasons, do not comply with measures of health in quality. According to the investigations that have been carried out, he refers to a study by the British American Tobacco company, in which products have found remains of fecal needs from both humans and rodents, as well as from pasture, alfombra and other products without any inspection.

The price difference between a legal article and an illegal one is abysmal: in the formal market there is a box of 25 cigarettes that has up to 12 Canadian dollars (about 150 pesos), in the calls for Indian reserves you can buy with 20 dollars (about 250 weights) a plastic bag with 200 cigarettes without a responsible brand in any reference. This price is totally tempting for the population, especially for young people and students.

Decide, in the formal market, a cigarette that is priced in dollars (25 pesos), in the illegal sector it can be bought in 0.10 dollars (1.25 pesos).

It is possible to verify through an activity that this periodical carried out in Indian reserves, located 25 minutes from the city of Montreal, Canada, from where there are small houses near the street known as “Cabañas de Humo”, that change, without restriction something, letters and advertising of "private brands" and pirates of cigarillos.

Within them the smell of cigarettes is penetrating, whenever thousands of cigarettes are sold both by unknown brands and by “pirates”, es decir, those that are sold making reference to legal brands. The sale takes place without conditioning and restriction. Hay cigarettes of different types and types, including peanuts, sand and millet flavor.

Due to the illegality of the activity, those responsible for the “Cabanas de Humo” are in constant communication to scare and remove all those people who want to carry out an investigation regarding the sale and the traffic of cigarillos.

In this way, the illicit tobacco business has gone on, albeit in 2006, it was estimated that 16 out of every 100 cigarettes sold in Canada were of illegal origin, currently that proportion is 33 out of every 100.

However, in some regions of Canada the illicit market reaches alarmingly alarming figures, such as in Ontario, where illegal cigarettes represent the marketplace.

According to data from Bristish American Tobacco, it is estimated that cigarette smuggling has grown by 990 percent from 2002 to 2008, with a clear trend in all.

* The sequels

The black market for cigarettes has caused the tobacco industry in Canada to be on the way to extinction, and to change it from the processing plants that it had in British American Tobacco operations in this country to withdraw, leaving its employees to scientists. workers.

Likewise, Health Canada surveys on the consumption of tobacco that is increasing the number of young people (from 15 to 19 years old) who smoke in Québec, from where the levels of contraband exceed 40 per cent. So, in 2006, the tobacco consumption rate among this population was 17 per cent, for the year 2009 it rose to 20 per cent, with all the control measures implemented by the authorities.

Likewise, the tax liabilities due to the concept of tobacco sales began to fall between 2005 and 2009 and the tobacco consumption rate across Canada was flattened between 2005 and 2008, however, the consumption of tobacco among young people increasing. .

"It is clear that Canada has achieved a high in its tobacco control strategy, as the tax burden does not act as an impediment to consumption, but as a stimulus for smuggling," says Peter Seeman, of the National Coalition. against contraband.

As a result, at the present time, one out of every five canadians continues to smoke and among young people the trend is heightened, even among 15 year olds, with the delinquent organizations still obtaining large sums of money, that on some occasions, the insurance Michael Gadbois , of the Association of Tiendas de Conveniencia de Canada, has as its destination the financing of serious criminal activities such as terrorism and organized crime.

“It is probable that canadians who buy illegal cigarettes will ask about the fate of their money, even if it is not clear where to go: in the state as a form of impunity,” I say.

* The alternatives

Before the dimension that has acquired the problem, experts and businessmen from Canada say that it has been shown that a greater tax burden on cigarettes is not the best option to face the problem of smoking, so that this type of measures should go from there. mano and incluso sustained mainly in topics of education and awareness.

Likewise, a greater commitment by the United States to fight and fight against the manufacture and smuggling of illegal cigarettes should be promoted, whenever the large majority of illegal cigarettes that are consumed in the Canadian territory are of American origin.

Including, added Michael Gadbois, it is necessary to address this problem with a binational perspective, in order to avoid a scenario like that facing Mexico and the United States in the field of drug and arms trafficking. “We still don't use this scenario, but we have to act,” he said.

In this way, the entrepreneur insures that it is now urgent to adopt certain actions to order the sequels that will ironically provoke the measures implemented to control tobacco in Canada.

In fact, the measures measured are in process in Mexico.