Jump to full article: The Guardian (uk), 2005-10-03
Intro: 1.1 The purpose of this paper is to provide a briefing in relation to the allegations made in the CPI Report of 31 January 2000 dealing with activities in Latin America . . . .
2.1 The essential allegation is that, in the period 1990 to 1995 (the period covered by the CP I Report), British American Tobacco and its subsidiaries sought to control and exploi t smuggling as part of a world-wide marketing strategy to increase revenue . . .
3.3 A market developed in smuggled cigarettes and consistent with its general policy, and with a view to securing market share, British American Tobacco acted, within the law, on the basis that its brands would be found alongside those of its competitors in the smuggled as well as the legitimate market . . . .
3.10 Although British American Tobacco did not instigate the smuggling of its brands into Colombia, and although its policy throughout the 1990s has been to work toward th e establishment of an entirely legitimate business there, the evidence is that it used DNP channels to grow its market share in Colombia and to establish itself there . That fact does not detract from what is said above given the wide compass of the statement that British American Tobacco "acts within the law on the basis that its brands will be found available alongside those of its competitors in the smuggled as well as the legitimate market". However, the use of DNP channels in Colombia needs to be borne in mind when responding to the Select Committee's questions.
3.11 Although it is true that DNP can have different meanings, it would appear that in Colombia and other Latin American countries it does connote smuggled goods .
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