The multinational tobacco company Phillip Morris International (PMI) denounced in Miami (Florida) that Panama is the “world champion of cigarette trafficking” and called on the Panamanian authorities to enforce the laws that punish this crime.
Grégoire Verdaux, senior vice president of External Affairs at PMI, spoke like this at a panel of the Concordia of the Americas summit inaugurated
by David Luna, executive director of the International Coalition against Illicit Economies, the panel focused on the damages of trafficking in illegal goods.
Wow! I thought it was a joke. Seriously! The cigarette industry, who’s product kills millions of people, is complaining because smokers aren’t able to pay the EXORBANANT TAXES governments slap on tobacco. I smoked for 30 years and I felt more exploited by the government than the tobacco companies. These HIGH TAXES actually encourage smoking!! Teens become dealers of these illicit cigarettes and have an incentive to addict new users. I saw it in Canada in the 1990s. Teen dealers would give out “free samples” at parties to create a clientele. If they want to stop illicit cigarettes just charge the normal sales tax on them.