From: The Australian
IMPERIAL Tobacco Australian supports sensible and practical regulation of tobacco products.
We sell only to adult consumers who exercise free choice to use our products.
We support strong regulation to prohibit supply or use of tobacco products by those under age.
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Should the proposal be implemented, as with other restricted products, demand for tobacco will remain and a black market will open up to fill it.
Ms Barnsley finds the existence of an illicit tobacco market inconvenient to her arguments and hence attempts to dismiss it by claiming “dodgy research from snake oil companies”.
More objective and astute analysts will note the company to which she refers is internationally recognised consulting firm KPMG. Their work on illicit tobacco is recognised by the OECD as the “most authoritative assessment of the level of counterfeit and contraband cigarettes”.
Illicit tobacco in Australia is already approaching 14 per cent of the market.
