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Tobacco in Colombia 

Antitobacco Legislation Approved

A controversial antitobacco law was passed on 17 June 2009, consistent with the guidelines established by the World Health Organisation. The primary objective of the law is to prevent sales to and consumption by minors, by way of prohibitive advertising and sponsorship restrictions in addition to a number of sales controls, including the outlawing of single-unit sales and of packs containing fewer than 10 cigarettes. Other antitobacco legislation based on Resolution 1956 (2008), which seeks to establish 100% smoke-free environments, is still under discussion.

Sales of Low Tar Cigarettes Expected to Decelerate due to Changes in Law

While volume sales of both high tar and mid tar cigarettes experienced dramatic declines over the review period, prompting an increase in the consumption of low tar varieties, forecasts would suggest a notable deceleration in low tar sales also. Restrictions on consumption and sales imposed by Colombia’s antitobacco law will likely result in fewer new and occasional smokers.

Tobacco Tax Reform Announced in 2009

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Tobacco in Colombia to 2013 - new market and company analysis 

This databook provides key data and information on the tobacco market in Colombia. This report is a comprehensive resource for market, category and segment level data including value, volume, distribution share and company & brand share. This report also provides expenditure and consumption data for the historic and forecast periods.

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Philip Morris to Acquire Protabaco for $425 Million (Update2)  

Philip Morris International Inc. agreed to buy Productora Tabacalera de Colombia, Protabaco Ltda. for $452 million, its second acquisition this month as tobacco demand rises in emerging markets.

The purchase of Colombia’s second-largest tobacco company needs regulatory approval and is expected to be completed within six months, New York-based Philip Morris said today in a statement. The maker of Marlboro cigarettes bought Colombia’s biggest tobacco company, Compania Colombiana de Tabaco SA, in 2005.

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Philip Morris International to buy Protabaco 

Philip Morris International Inc., seller of Marlboro cigarettes overseas, said Friday it would pay $452 million to buy privately owned Protabaco, a Colombian cigarette maker.

Protabaco's brands include Mustang, Premier and President.

Philip Morris International is the world's largest nongovernmental cigarette maker after China's state-controlled China National Tobacco Corp.

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Statement from Gail Covelluzzi at the Philip Morris International Shareholders' Meeting  

Good morning. My name is Gail Covelluzzi and I'm with Corporate Accountability International.

While PMI claims to support regulation and demands a seat at the table in setting tobacco control policies, activists around the world are calling on the corporation to keep out of public policymaking. This example comes from our Latin America Coordinator, Yul Francisco Dorado, whom you met at the last annual shareholders' meeting of Altria as a parent to both PMI and PM USA.

In Colombia just 10 days ago, the President of PMI subsidiary Coltabaco placed an op-ed in El Tiempo, the largest circulation daily in Colombia, entitled "Please Regulate Us." While purporting to support a bill before the Colombian Senate, Jon Ruiz argued against "extremes" in the legislation and instead promoted the corporation's self-regulation and alleged support for restrictions on marketing to youth.

PMI's stance runs counter to the global tobacco treaty, of which Colombia is a party. In fact, the amendments decried by PMI would strengthen Colombia's compliance with the treaty. According to new guidelines supporting treaty implementation, ratifying countries should not accept tobacco industry voluntary codes as a substitute for legally enforceable tobacco control measures. Nor should they accept tobacco industry assistance in drafting legislation. . . .

Mr. Camilleri, why does PMI continue attempting to undermine implementation of the global tobacco treaty in countries like Colombia?

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Statement from Gail Covelluzzi at the Philip Morris International Shareholders' Meeting  

Good morning. My name is Gail Covelluzzi and I'm with Corporate Accountability International.

While PMI claims to support regulation and demands a seat at the table in setting tobacco control policies, activists around the world are calling on the corporation to keep out of public policymaking. This example comes from our Latin America Coordinator, Yul Francisco Dorado, whom you met at the last annual shareholders' meeting of Altria as a parent to both PMI and PM USA.

In Colombia just 10 days ago, the President of PMI subsidiary Coltabaco placed an op-ed in El Tiempo, the largest circulation daily in Colombia, entitled "Please Regulate Us." While purporting to support a bill before the Colombian Senate, Jon Ruiz argued against "extremes" in the legislation and instead promoted the corporation's self-regulation and alleged support for restrictions on marketing to youth.

PMI's stance runs counter to the global tobacco treaty, of which Colombia is a party. In fact, the amendments decried by PMI would strengthen Colombia's compliance with the treaty. According to new guidelines supporting treaty implementation, ratifying countries should not accept tobacco industry voluntary codes as a substitute for legally enforceable tobacco control measures. Nor should they accept tobacco industry assistance in drafting legislation. . . .

Mr. Camilleri, why does PMI continue attempting to undermine implementation of the global tobacco treaty in countries like Colombia?

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• Colombia Takes Action to Save Lives by Implementing Sweeping Smoke-Free Decree  

The government of Colombia took historic action this week to protect the health and lives of its citizens by implementing a sweeping smoke-free decree that applies to all indoor workplaces and public places. The decree was first introduced in May of 2008 and went into effect this week. It requires that all indoor workplaces and public places be smoke-free, including restaurants, bars, public transportation and medical and educational institutes.

The smoke-free decree is a major step forward in protecting the health of Colombia's 46 million residents and workers from the deadly effects of secondhand smoke and adds momentum to the growing smoke-free movement in Latin American and the world.

In Latin America, Colombia joins Uruguay, Panama, Mexico and five Argentinean provinces in having strong smoke-free laws and policies.

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Death stalked Betancourt's captivity in Colombia 

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Ingrid Betancourt began each day in captivity at 4 a.m. -- cold and depressed but awake in the dark waiting to hear her mother's words of encouragement over the radio.

She was haunted by thoughts of suicide and fears that she would be killed. . . .

Betancourt took up smoking while captive. She would use her cigarettes to trade for scarce essentials such as a slither of soap or medicine for her stomach ailments.

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• Stricter smoking ban takes effect in Colombia 

A ban on smoking in all public places went into effect on Sunday in Colombia, announced the Colombian government.

The ban applies to all public places, such as public transport vehicles, hospitals, kindergartens and schools, said the Ministry of Social Security and Health, which issued the ban on May 31, the21st World No Tobacco Day.

The ban also extends non-smoking area to bars, clubs, restaurants, business centers and airports, said the ministry.

Under the ban, "smoking areas" will no longer be seen in enclosed public places and all cigarettes sold within the country should carry the warning "smoking is harmful to your health" on their packages.

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In Colombia, a War Zone Reclaims Its Past  

The jumping-off point for Tayrona is the coastal city of Santa Marta, Colombia’s oldest town, founded by the Spanish in 1525 and best known as the place where Simón Bolívar, the Latin American liberator, died. . . .

Santa Marta is worth a night’s stopover, if only for a visit to a piece of hallowed ground: Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, the butterscotch yellow hacienda where Bolívar, desperately ill with tuberculosis, died on Dec. 17, 1830. The hacienda — a modest adobe villa set around an ocher-tiled courtyard — still has the canopied wooden bed where Bolívar drew his last breaths. Across the courtyard is the smoking chamber where Bolívar’s host and others retired for cigars so as not to torment Bolívar’s deteriorating lungs.

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• Smoke Signals in Cali 

Synopsis in English: Here's a snapshot of just how bad tobacco dependence is in some parts of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Late last week the Municipal Secretary of Health for Colombia's second largest city, Cali (pop. 2.2 million), released the results of a recent study on risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases . . . The study found that (1) the average age overall for starting smoking is seven, although there are some males that begin even earlier; (2) 53.7% of Cali men have smoked at some point in their life, while only 24.5% of Cali women have; (3) the prevalence of smoking differs by gender, 7.5% for women, 24.9% for men; (4) tobacco consumption prevalence increases with age up until you hit the 30-44 age bracket — from 13.3% for those under 24 years old to 24.2% for the 24-30 bracket — then falls to under 15% for those 45 and older.

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UPDATE: Philip Morris Offers $4.8 Mln For Coltabaco Stake ($$) 

Philip Morris International's Dutch unit, GWP CV, offered to pay 11.3 billion Colombian pesos ($4.8 million) to buy the remaining shares it doesn't already own in Colombia's largest tobacco firm, Compania de Tabaco SA (COLTABACO.BO), the stock regulator said Thursday in a filing.

Coltabaco will become fully owned by GWP CV upon completion of the planned purchase.

GWP CV seeks to purchase 1.604% of Coltabaco or 1,019,014 outstanding shares through a public tender offer, the company said Wednesday in a filing to the country's financial regulator.

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• Philip Morris Unit Offers $4.8M For 1.6% Coltabaco Stake ($$) 

Philip Morris International's Dutch unit, GWP CV, offered to pay 11.3 billion Colombian pesos ($4.8 million) to buy the shares it doesn't already own in Colombia's largest tobacco firm, Compania de Tabaco SA (COLTABACO.BO), the stock regulator said Thursday in a filing.

GWP CV seeks to purchase 1.604% of Coltabaco or 1,019,014 outstanding shares through a public tender offer, the company had said Wednesday in a filing to the country's financial regulator.

GWP CV offered to pay COP11,100 a share, the price the stock closed the last time it traded on April 24.

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Cuba in the Keys 

Cuba's first major revolt against Spanish rule sparked the Ten Years' War in 1868. Thousands of refugees fled across the Straits of Florida to Key West.

At the same time, tariffs and labor strife plagued Cuba's cigar industry, spurring manufacturers and workers to immigrate to the key as well.

By 1890, they were making 100 million cigars a year in Key West.

Many of their homes still stand, from the gingerbread-trimmed "Gato Jr. House" on Duval Street (now the Southernmost Point Guest House) to the cigar rollers' humble cottages still dotting many streets as private homes or small businesses.

The Gato name, given to homes and a neighborhood called Gatoville, came from Eduardo Hidalgo-Gato, the first Cuban-born cigar maker in Key West. He and other manufacturers built workers' quarters close to their factories.

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• Reynolds, BAT Win Second Dismissal of Cigarette Smuggling Case 

An appeals court for a second time dismissed lawsuits that accused Reynolds American Inc. and British American Tobacco Plc of smuggling cigarettes to avoid paying taxes and customs duties.

The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York rejected separate lawsuits by the European Union and by 25 departments of the nation of Colombia, which are equivalent to U.S. states. The European Union sued R.J. Reynolds, a unit of Reynolds American. The Colombian suit names British American, the world's second-largest cigarette maker.

The court first dismissed the suits last year, only to have the U.S. Supreme Court ask it reconsider. Today, the appeals court again cited the so-called revenue rule, a U.S. legal principle that bars suits by foreign governments seeking to collect unpaid taxes.

``When a foreign nation appears as a plaintiff in our courts seeking enforcement of its revenue laws, the judiciary risks being drawn into issues and disputes of foreign relations policy that are assigned to -- and better handled by -- the political branches of government,'' the court wrote.

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When a foreign nation appears as a plaintiff in our courts seeking enforcement of its revenue laws, the judiciary risks being drawn into issues and disputes of foreign relations policy that are assigned to -- and better handled by -- the political branches of government.
2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York, in rejecting separate lawsuits by the European Union and by 25 departments of the nation of Colombia which accused B&W and RJR of smuggling cigarettes.