Archive for June 19th, 2009
Big Tobacco protesting against Bill C-32
Big Tobacco is set to stage another protest in front of the Prime Minister’s Office today in Ottawa at 2:00pm. This follows the protest yesterday at the National Assembly in Quebec City.
The industry’s reaction to the ban on flavourings in cigarettes reinforces just how very important Bill C-32 is. With restrictions on advertising, packaging and product flavourings will become increasingly important to the industry to recruit and retain smokers in many countries. Fortunately at this point cigarettes in Canada are unflavoured, except for menthol (about 2% market share), and for a very small volume of imports said by Health Canada to be 0.5%. We can’t let the industry have an avenue to exploit.
US companies will still be able to export their brands to Canada, they will just have to reformulate to remove flavourings to meet the requirements of the Canadian market. Philip Morris through its subsidiary Rothmans, Benson & Hedges seems to be driving opposition.
